Roy Hodgson: 'We're well-blessed in attacking areas'

Roy Hodgson says he was pleased with the attitude of his players during England’s victory over Lithuania on Friday night.  

The Three Lions boss saw his team extend their winning run to seven games – the best ever start to a season for England at senior level – and was happy to see the principles they had worked on in training come off on the pitch.

And, after running through the key points of the victory with the squad back at the England team hotel on Saturday morning, he told FATV that the attention will turn to their next game – the friendly against Italy in Turin on Tuesday night.

“I was obviously very pleased, even though we know that we were the favourites and have the better players, the onus is on us to win,” said Hodgson.

“I thought we played well, we showed the right attitude from the first minute to the last minute. The things that we work on, the principles that we are preaching, were very much in evidence and as far as I’m concerned and it’s another good win.

“These wins are only easy at the end of the game when you’ve got the result. These games can go badly wrong, but there was no question of that happening last night.

“From the kick-off I thought we were totally in control and it’s very nice to come away with such a convincing victory.”

Hodgson continued: “We’ve had a good morning, we used this morning for recovery to make certain the players do their work on the bikes, their stretching and work in the pool.

“And also we use it for meetings. Andy Scoulding [technical analyst], Gary Neville, Dave Watson and Ray Lewington worked very hard last night to get the video clips we needed to emphasise the points that we wanted to make from the game. The players have been very responsive to that.

“We’ve now put this game behind us and we’ll start concentrating on the game ahead which is the Italian one.”

Raheem Sterling nets his first for England

While all the pre-match talk was surrounding England’s latest star, Harry Kane, who made a sensational start to his senior career with a goal within 80 seconds of coming on against Lithuania, it was Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck who came out of the blocks quickly.

The skipper opened the scoring with three minutes on the clock, tucking away a rebound from Welbeck’s initial effort. Then the Arsenal striker added a second just before the break to chalk up his sixth goal in qualifying and take him to the top of the European Qualifiers goal chart.

Raheem Sterling also weighed in with one – his first for England in his 14th appearance – before teeing up Kane for his fairytale finish to wrap up a 4-0 win. And with Kane’s impact, Hodgson feels the competition for places in the squad is a positive sign for the Three Lions.

“Both [Rooney and Welbeck] were good and I thought Sterling was very good, especially in the second half where he tormented the Lithuanian defence, so I’ve got to be happy with those three,” said Hodgson.

“I’m also very happy that when Harry was about to come on, he should have had about 25 minutes, but it got whittled down to 21 because they couldn’t get the ball from us.

“Harry emerging as he has done is a real bonus for us because it increases the competition and gives us yet another player to think about, especially having lost Daniel Sturridge as we did. It was very fortunate to have him there.

“To come on in your senior debut and score a goal, there is no better way to cap what has been a very fine season so far.

“We hope it is going to be a starting point for him in an England career. But at the moment it just means that I am quite well-blessed in that area when everybody is fit.

“Sterling, Welbeck, Rooney and Sturridge showed last autumn what talent they have, so to add people like Harry Kane and Theo Walcott, who is now coming back from injury, means that the competition is even stronger.”

Joe Hart was alert against Lithuania

The victory over Lithuania was largely routine, and with so much possession going forward it meant England were rarely troubled.

Yet Hodgson praised his goalkeeper Joe Hart, who maintained his concentration throughout a quiet night at Wembley and dealt with all that was asked of him.  

“Joe made one very good save, though I’m not sure people recognised it, when he took a cross which could have been very dangerous.

“From a very good starting position he darted out and whipped the ball off the toe in a duel between the Lithuanian player and Nathaniel Clyne – that was an excellent save.

“Apart from that he didn’t have any other serious saves to make, but that is testament to the players in front of him.

“His concentration and distribution was good throughout, so even though he had a quieter evening by everyone’s standards, by our standards he was very much involved and did what he had to do.”