England boss Roy Hodgson says he will be making multiple changes to his team when they take on Germany this week.
After Friday’s defeat against Chile, which saw Hodgson hand debuts to three players and experiment with his line-up, he now plans to make alterations as England aim to finish 2013 on a high in front of a sell-out crowd at Wembley.
Hodgson has confirmed that both Ashley Cole and Joe Hart will start the game and he knows that Germany’s strengths in midfield and attack mean England will need a high energy approach.
“That’s something we’re going to have to think about,” he revealed.
“I thought we had got that sort of energy in our squad but it’s far too early to be telling what we’re going to be doing on Tuesday night.
“All I can say is there’ll be a lot of players who will come back into the team who I think will be useful to us, especially if Germany play a strong team.
“We’ll have a lot of fresh legs coming in which will be good. We’re aware they have a very dynamic midfield and we’re going to have to be dynamic ourselves to keep them at bay.
“We may have to face the fact they’ll ask big questions of us defensively, because they’ll have a big attacking threat.
“But I don’t think we were gung-ho against Chile and I’m not expecting any major difference in approach.
“We don’t come to Wembley to lose, we come to Wembley to win even if we’re playing a very good team so we fight again on Tuesday night.”
England v Germany
8pm, Tue 19 November
Wembley Stadium
Live on ITV1
Hodgson and his squad are keen to put Friday’s result behind them and will be back on the training pitch on Sunday as attentions turn to Joachim Loew’s side.
And Hodgson admits that despite the disappointment of the Chile game, he’s advised the players to put it down as a bad day at the office.
“You’re never prepared to lose games,” he added.
“You always prepare to win games and you always think that whatever team you put out, even though you know you’re asking a lot of some people – this was a team of debutants and younger players and inexperienced players – you still send that team out expecting to win.
“When you don’t, it’s hard and all I can say is what I said in there [the dressing room], which is that it’s important we don’t beat ourselves up too hard about it.
“We did play a good team and we were on the back foot having gone a goal down.
“There were moments when we worked quite hard and created some goal chances but credit to Chile, they handled us.”
With a big crowd expected at Wembley against a side who regularly challenge for international honours, Hodgson also wants to see his players deal with the pressure that comes along with that.
“I think there’s a weight of expectation on everybody, that’s how it is,” he said.
“We are England, people want us to win, people want to see us play well and they expect us to do that, whether we are playing a so-called easier opponent or a so-called tougher opponent.”
