Dalglish: Hodgson did his best

Former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish said Roy Hodgson delivered what was expected of his England side at Euro 2012.

Dalglish’s predecessor at Anfield, Hodgson was appointed as the national team boss in May just six weeks before the start of the tournament following Fabio Capello’s resignation in February.

The Three Lions crashed out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage after losing 4-2 on penalties to Italy. However, Dalglish feels criticism of Hodgson is unwarranted and that given his limited preparation time, his team did as well as could be expected.

“England did the best they could. Nobody ever said they thought England were going to win Euro 2012,” he told the Daily Mirror.

“No one was expecting them to take the tournament by storm. There was a minimum expectation for where they were going to get to. It was the quarter-finals. They got there.

“Roy did not have a lot of time to prepare, but he got a lot of decisions right.

“For a start, Roy only got the manager’s job a few weeks before the tournament, so it was obvious that he was going to go with a style and a formation he was comfortable with.

“The system was fine for tournament football.”

England’s attentions will now switch to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in two years’ time, as Hodgson prepares to blood the next generation in his squad.

Similarly to the manager’s performance, the 61-year-old Dalglish said the current crop of players also met expectations at the tournament, and that there is an ample amount of young talent that could potentially add to an established senior squad.

“You can’t fault England’s players for the way they went about their work and got as much as they could from the games they played,” he said.

“They had respect for their team-mates, they played for each other, and it showed. It was what got them out of their group.

“Defensively, England worked really hard during the competition. John Terry’s positional play was superb. Glen Johnson had a good tournament, too.

“Steven Gerrard did a magnificent job as captain on and off the pitch and when Andy Carroll got a chance to play, he did not do himself any harm.

“England have got plenty of talent coming through and have got a decent base of established players.

“Give Roy a bit of time and preparation and there is lots of scope for optimism.”