Euro 2016: Roy Hodgson remains reluctant to address England's Wayne Rooney question

The issue threatens to cast a shadow over preparations for the opening game against Russia

Rooney's place in Hodgson's line-up has regularly been called into question (Getty)

It was a well-intentioned attempt by Roy Hodgson to deflect the attention away from the riddle of accommodating his captain in England’s Euro 2016, but it all felt a little bit too late.

“I’m not prepared to make this the Wayne Rooney show,” Hodgson insisted, as he was asked to assess the success, or otherwise, of his decision to play the Manchester United forward in three-pronged attacking formation during Thursday’s 1-0 Wembley victory Portugal.

Rooney, starting his first England international since last November against the Portuguese at Wembley, had been deployed at the tip of a midfield diamond, just behind Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy, but the tactic failed to have the desired effect, with Rooney too often breaking forward forcing the Premier League’s top two scorers from last season to drift out to the flanks.

The combination patently did not work, with Kane and Vardy’s qualities nullified, but the recurring Wayne Rooney question – how best to accommodate England’s all-time leading goalscorer – remains unanswered by Hodgson, with just seven days to go until the Euro 2016 Group B opener against Russia in Marseille.

“Wayne was one of the players out there,” Hodgson said. “Once again, we changed our system, we did so on several occasions.

“We started with two strikers, Rooney in a No 10 position and then we decided when we brought on Raheem Sterling in particular and Adam Lallana – Daniel Sturridge too – and played a more traditional way if you like.

“Which one works best? Well, you have to be careful there because the three at the end were playing against a team which was tiring and furthermore they were playing against a team which had allowed total domination of the ball, whereas the first lads were playing for at least 35 minutes against 11 men who had some desire to attack.

“But I’ve got nothing more to say on Wayne.”

Hodgson’s reticence to address the Rooney issue directly threatens to cast a cloud over England’s preparations for the Russia game, however.

Confusion remains over Rooney’s best position, or indeed the one he most favours.

Sources close to the player suggest he is keen to play on the left of a front three – a role which enables the 30-year-old to cut inside and shoot on sight of goal. Rooney has also expressed a readiness to take on a midfield role, particularly the deeper-lying position which he performed well for United during the FA Cup final win against Crystal Palace last month.

Whether Rooney still possesses the pace or mobility to play through the middle – the position in which Kane excels – remains to be seen, but for Hodgson, there is no debate over Rooney’s best position.

“You must ask him about that, but he hasn’t said to me that (left side) is where he wants to play,” Hodgson said. “You’re talking about the player who has played 111 games for England and scored 53 goals, so perhaps his best position is anywhere on the field.”

Hodgson’s Euro 2016 squad is blessed with attacking talent, with Sturridge and Marcus Rashford making up the five-strong group of forwards, and Hodgson insists he is more than happy to ‘shoehorn’ players into the team in order to exploit England’s strengths.

“It is a good problem to have, shoehorning in attacking players,” Hodgson said. “I don’t think, for a long time, that I’ve had that – a lot of good attacking players.

“So you won’t find me complaining about having to shoehorn players in.

“You would find me complaining if we weren’t defending as a team, conceding lots of goals chances and every time we played we needed to score three to win a game, but I’ve seen no evidence of that.”

Smalling's late header separated the two sides at the final whistle (Getty)

While Chris Smalling’s 86th minute goal ultimately secured victory against a Portugal team that had played with ten men for 55 minutes following the dismissal of defender Bruno Alves, Hodgson’s tactical tinkering against England’s fellow Euro 2016 qualifiers hinted at the manager’s uncertainty over his favoured formation for France.

But Hodgson claimed that the importance of the squad, and utilising the players correctly, outweighs the need to settle on a formation.

“I think we will need the 16 or 17 men that we’ve used in the last couple of games, in particular, and possibly some of the ones who haven't been used,” Hodgson said.

“We may find ourselves in the course of games, as we analyse what’s happening out there, making the sort of changes we did against Portugal because we might think these are the changes to get that important goal.

“It was never going to be 3-0 or 4-0, not after the player was sent off, because they dropped deep and defended well.

“It was always going to be, ‘can we get one?’ and then maybe they would open up. We got it so late, it was never going to happen that they were going to open up. But I’m satisfied with the victory.”

Hodgson is entitled to satisfaction, having overseen three successive victories in the pre-tournament warm-up fixtures against Turkey, Australia and Portugal. There have been no injuries to the final 23-man squad either, bar a minor muscle strain suffered by Ryan Bertrand, who will resume training on Monday.

Questions remain over Rooney’s best position and the ability of the defence to hold out against quality opposition, but the build-up has generated more positives than negativity.

The Portugal victory was hardly easy on the eye, though, and Hodgson admits that it remains important to him that England not only win, but win with flair.

“We do try to play with style,” he said. “We’ll always be trying to play with style.

“If you watch the (Portugal) game back over again, you will see some very good moments in our attacking play.

“You will find other moments when perhaps you don’t, but I don’t think that England will ever go down the route where we can do whatever, where we can do whatever we like results-wise, just as long as a certain style is there because, unfortunately, when you discuss style, you open up to lots of opinions.

“What is style? What is good football? Did we pass the ball well, or did we not pass the ball well?

“Some people might say we did, some people might say we didn’t.”

Hodgson is world-weary enough not to spend too much time worrying about questions over style, however.

But it may be a different matter when it comes to answering the Wayne Rooney question.