It’s recently been announced that Big Sam ‘The Man’ Alledyse has been appointed England Manager. With the FA having a poor history of gambling and losing with foreign coaches I’m glad to see that Greg Dyke still has faith in the classic English Manager. After all no team has won a world cup without having a manager of the same nationality as his players. However if you are reading this Big Sam, here is Football Trippers advice on how not to make the same mistakes as Roy Hodgson
He didn’t make use of inform players
If I were Andy Caroll, Danny Drinkwater or Mark Noble I would be absolutely fuming with Roy Hodgson for not being picked. I’d be sat at home refusing to watch the games and just be wanting to play casino games at All Jackpots. I can 100% guarantee if those 3 players were on the pitch instead of Kane, Rooney and Dier during the Iceland, England would not have lost. That’s not to mention the likes of Rashford and Milner who also sat most of the tournament sat on the bench despite the other players clearly not living up to expectations. If a player scores 4 goals in 4 FA games, such as Andy Carrol, then it’s probably a good idea to have them in your squad.
He didn’t make use of popular English tactics
Winners Leicester use a 4-4-2. 2nd and 3rd place teams Arsenal and Tottenham use 4-2-3-1 as well as Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool and many many more team who also use 4-2-3-1 in the Premier League. So I would think it would make sense to use either a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1. Tactics which all of the players would be familiar with giving them a head start during the brief training. But no, Roy Hodgson had to use a 4-3-2-1 formation which practically no teams use ever, except Liverpool recently which only really worked with the God-like Suarez pulling the strings. Next time do us a favor and use a formation that a lot of the players would be familiar with.
He didn’t put players in there best positions
Just because Vardy has pace doesn’t mean he is a winger. Just because Rooney can play Hollywood passes doesn’t mean he should play in midfield as Jose Mourinho has right said. Just because Joe Hart is a goalie doesn’t mean he should in goal either! England has a long history of choosing players in a Fifa style of the most popular players, rather then picking players that are right for a system. Famously with Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard all being played together when really there were only 1 or 2 spaces for them. Maybe Roy should have played wingers on the wing, not strikers, played strikers up front, not in midfield so on so forth.
Practice Set Pieces
Judging by how awful England were at both attacking and defending set pieces we can only conclude that either England spent little time on set pieces or Roy Hodgson doesn’t have a clue how to practice set pieces. Famously in the English game set pieces are the one tool smaller clubs had against bigger teams to level the playing field. Teams like Stoke know that if they can keep a clean sheet for 90 mins, odds are they can steal a cheeky goal from a set piece provided they practice them. This is why whether you are Stoke or Man Utd you need to practice set pieces.
So there you go Big Sam. Follow our advice and Silverwear could be yours!!!!