Roy Hodgson refuses to blame Wayne Rooney for England’s defeat to Italy

England’s Wayne Rooney

England manager Roy Hodgson has wasted no time in attempting to diffuse any media narrative involving Wayne Rooney.

The Manchester United striker started on the left side of an aggressive England forward line and never looked fully involved in the game despite providing an excellent assist for Daniel Sturridge’s equaliser against the Azzuri.

Following England’s 2-1 World Cup defeat against Italy, Hodgson told BBC1: ”I think it is harsh to say he didn’t look comfortable on the left. I thought he did quite well and he set up our goal.”

“Even when they got back to 2-1 I thought we would get back into it. I thought that was the best I’d seen the team play.”

There can be little argument with Roy Hodgson, 66. England frequently caused an otherwise accomplished Italian back-line look ordinary with their movement and speed but Rooney’s misfire from close range when under little pressure will again pose question marks as to whether he is the squad’s greatest techinician.

“It is a bit tough to accept we lost the game,” he added. “Joe Hart has had a pretty quiet evening but we found ourselves having lost it.”

The former Inter Milan manager will take heart from the result but was surely pandering to the media and audience after the game as criticism of Rooney poured in whilst constant praise of Liverpool stars Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson kept filtering through.

Roy’s hoards will have no doubt learnt from this experience and he remained stoic during his post-match interview:

“I suppose you have to bite the bullet today and accept we played well.

“I thought we came to terms with it much better in the second half. We are a positive team who do not sit back and we left one or two opportunities for them, but we had chances to score.