Roy Hodgson made a decision to rest the captain and star striker Harry Kane and it seemed to backfire as they were held to a stalemate against Slovakia.
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The stalemate against Slovakia heaped pressure on Hodgson but despite that result, Dyke is predicting England will go far in the tournament and that the Three Lions boss could earn an extension to his deal which expires in the summer.
English football is immensely popular in Iceland, where supporters often cheer the England team during tournaments. But what we do on the training pitch in the next few days is most important.
However, the Liverpool attacking midfielder trained at the Stade des Bourgognes on Saturday, as did the rest of the 23-man squad.
England’s Harry Kane during a news conference. Follow Chris’ Euro 2016 blog at SmartBets, the customisable odds comparison site that gives fans the real-time odds and stats that matter.
England may be unbeaten in their last 10 games at the Euros; shoot-outs excluded (W5 D5), but have only been able to produce one win against Wales in the group stages.
“I think now we are in the knockout stages, I’m sure we will practise a lot more as a group rather than players going up individually – practise as a group in case it comes and we need them”, he said.
Hodgson dreams of ending England’s 50 barren years, while Lagerback is the mastermind of the Iceland fairytale, guiding the little island nation to its first ever major championship.
But Kane says the dressing room is fully attuned to the manager’s tactics. “We have conversations about what goes on, about keeping confident and doing what I do. I believe we are better than that”.
England started the tournament with a 1-1 draw against Russian Federation before beating Wales 2-1 and drawing 0-0 with Slovakia in their final Group B game – results that left them in second place and in a tougher half of the draw. I don’t know how big a chance, but I always believe you can win a football game and with these guys it’s always possible.
Hodgson was criticised for making six changes to his starting line-up for the game, but Kane echoed captain Wayne Rooney by defending the manager’s choices. So many nonsenses are said to me and written and I don’t often get a chance to put things right.
“England have shown that when teams drop back, allow them to have possession and don’t let any space between the lines, they find it very hard to break down these teams”.
They followed that by losing to Germany on penalties in the semi-finals and on the horizon here are potentially daunting tests against the likes of France, Spain, Italy or Germany.
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“Lars Lagerback doesn’t have to worry about any egos or looking after the players because they look after themselves”. I am not going to sit here and say, “We are a group of young players, so we’ll be happy to get to the quarter-finals, the future’s bright over the next two to four years” and all that.
