“If anything, it’s tilted towards an offensive approach but that’s because we believe we have so many players at the moment in midfield and in attack who are really good-quality players”, he said.
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England scraped to victory thanks to a late Chris Smalling victor to make it three wins from three in their warm-up matches.
Despite being a friendly game, Portugal were reduced to ten men on 35 minutes when Alves put in a ridiculous challenge on Kane when his raised foot caught the Tottenham man in the side of his head, leaving the referee with little option but to brandish a red card.
“We kept going and got the win which was really important for us, and I thought we were the better team throughout – even when it was 11 versus 11”.
Now 30, Rooney was used in a withdrawn role by Manchester United over the season’s closing months, but Santos says that he can be risky wherever he plays.
“When you play that system you need your strikers to split”, he explained.
Part of England’s reason for choosing Portugal as an adversary for the Euro 2016 friendly was Ronaldo’s presence in the team and the practice their own winger (and Ronaldo’s Madrid teammate) Gareth Bale would have against him.
Ronaldo could return in Portugal’s game against Estonia in Lisbon next Thursday, after which the squad will travel to France, where they face Iceland, Austria and Hungary in Group F.
Rather than travelling to France on a wave of national optimism, England’s players will be accompanied by a series of nagging doubts, but Hodgson claims it might work in his squad’s favour if they are not saddled with sky-high expectations.
“We know that, but it is a good sign when you don’t play as well as you can do, but you win the game”.
Hodgson, for whom the Euro 2016 could be the last tournament as England’s coach, spoke to the Independent News Service ahead of the Euro warm-up.
“It would have been better to play against 11”.
“We protected our defence and also England didn’t really have many opportunities to score against us”.
“Suddenly, we do have a lot of players to pick from and it was a very tough decision for me”.
Accentuating the positives, Hodgson hailed England’s “patience and composure” and suggested that a more handsome victory would have created unhealthy expectations.
“Obviously with Cristiano things would be different, we are talking about the best player in the world, and also for his speed, his athleticism”, he said.
“They’ve worked hard on the shape of the team, and I’m happy we’re definitely going the right way as far as that is concerned”.
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‘You don’t want to see Vardy and Kane in these deep positions, you want to see them up there holding the ball, or Vardy going long so he can stretch the play.
