Roy Hodgson believes it is impossible to predict whether the intensity of the Premier League will be a help or a hindrance for England’s World Cup campaign, but insisted achieving a balance in the preparation period will be key.
In an interview with FIFA.com, the England Manager says that with such a short turnaround time between the end of league season and the World Cup beginning, a detailed planning and preparation period is essential.
He said: “I need to be very careful, but we need to do our work and there’s a lot of work I want to do.
England's summer schedule
- 30 May: Peru (Wembley Stadium)
- 4 June: Ecuador (Miami)
- 7 June: Honduras (Miami)
- 14 June: Italy (Manaus)
- 19 June: Uruguay (Sao Paulo)
- 24 June: Costa Rica (Belo Horizonte)
"I have to find a way of doing it but not push the players beyond their limits. Getting the balance right in everything is all of football and all of sport.
“The Premier League is what it is. Some people will see the intensity and quality as a great advantage for your players; it will make them better.
“Some will see it as a disadvantage because the players play at such a high level and such intensity, it’s difficult for them to drum that up that intensity with a very short space of rest time.
“We come to the tournament extremely motivated with lots of ideas and lots of things we’re going to work on. We’ve got to make sure our perspective from the whole thing is right. We have to understand that the players we’re working with, all they’ve had is one week [of rest].”
Hodgson must name his 30-man England squad by the FIFA deadline of 13 May – just two days after the Premier League season ends and four days before The FA Cup Final, but he says it is the same for everybody and as an international manager he must just get on with it.
He added: “As a national coach in England, you work with the premises you work with. In an ideal world, the season would end and the players would have two-to-three weeks by the beach.
“You’d have four-to-five weeks of preparation and then you’d play the tournament. That’s never going to happen because you couldn’t possibly fit it all into a season. I’d like a longer break, every national team coach will tell you the same.
"Because you can’t get that, everything is degrees of bad in terms of your preparation because there’s not enough time for the players to rest from one competition to another.
"But we’re not alone. Every other team is in the same boat from that perspective."
England take on Peru at Wembley Stadium on 30 May, before travelling to Miami for two further warm-up games against Ecuador and Honduras – before getting their World Cup campaign under way against Italy on 14 June.
You can be at Wembley to see the Three Lions in their final match on home soil before they leave for the World Cup – get your tickets for England v Peru by clicking here
Click here to read the full FIFA.com interview with England manager Roy Hodgson
