Hodgson's England Set Off on the Long Way Back

There has been much soul-searching on the state of the national team in the months since the World Cup. What is English football getting so wrong that our players couldn’t muster a single win from our group? Grassroots coaching and the Premier League have been under scrutiny for some time and the quality of players they provide for the national team loudly condemned, but England’s build up to last night’s trip to Switzerland was set against a fresh media backdrop; a narrative that has slowly built momentum ever since Luis Suarez thrashed the ball past Joe Hart in Sao Paulo back in June.

 For the first time the country’s sports writers seem to have mutually permitted each other to criticise Roy Hodgson, whose name had sprouted the prefix ‘under pressure’ - usually seen just a bad result or two before ‘under-fire’ and finally ‘beleaguered’. While those pre-tournament concerns are certainly not without foundation, the truth is that the England’s World Cup squad was a good one and we could have expected a far better tournament.

The good-will that the manager enjoyed previously has run out and henceforth he shall be judged on merit, of which, truthfully, his reign is in short supply. Hodgson himself lent extra weight to the perception of his being under increasing pressure with a public outburst following last week's lifeless friendly against Norway and was forced to deny that he was cracking under the strain of the job.

In my view the spreading dissatisfaction of the national team is justifiable given the wider context of the national team's failures, but the latest target for our disappointment stems from a lazy backward glance at what happened this summer.

In the weeks and months before the World Cup Hodgson made all the right decisions; he made bold selections in his squad and then with his starting XI, taking to Brazil a group of players who had no deficiency of flair, attitude or goal-threat – perhaps just experience. In the two games in which it is fair to judge the team, we were not undone in our strategy, quality on the ball or ‘not giving a toss’ as Harry Redknapp helpfully suggested.

We lost our opening two games in a few vital moments at either end of the field. England made few more than four defensive mistakes yet conceded four goals, while they could easily have had more than the two they registered against Italy and Uruguay.

That is an opinion too readily shot down by disheartened Englishmen. ‘We lost, finished bottom of the group. We're terrible. End of discussion’, they say. Football may be a simple game, but there is no need to think about it so simply.

I found our failure at the World Cup perversely interesting. Painful yes, but nuanced. The overwhelming emotion for me: frustration at unrealised potential. Not the crushing disappointment of 2006 or the outright disillusionment of 2010. Just two years ago we faced Italy in the quarter finals of the European Championships and approached the game as a football league side might against a Premier League one. Scott Parker scrapped in midfield and Andy Carroll won knock-downs for Walcott to chase. While technically we fared worse this summer, I would argue the team has come a long way.

While it cannot be said that England deserved to qualify in Brazil – you get what you deserve in a three game group – it is nevertheless compatible and fair to say that were Group D played out one hundred times and England performed identically, we could probably expect to get through the group more often than not, and our three results would be better in the vast majority of those hypotheticals.

Still, it is very much not in the nature of sport discussion to hang too much significance on such an argument. Only with the benefit of future successes may Hodgson protest that he was actually getting quite a lot right at Brazil 2014.

It is a debate he cannot win with the information available now. The earliest possible vindication for Hodgson’s England reign is nearly two years away in France. He can do nothing but patiently ride out what will likely seem to most like highly depressing times for English football. A squad including Colback, Delph and Rose sparked derision, but Hodgson will believe that last night's victory is the start of a brighter era for the English game.

Jack Wilshere is a season-length run of games away from realigning his form and his ability. Phil Jones looks set to be given the chance to prove himself in Manchester United's central defence, the only position he is truly suited to. In Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling, England have two of the best young midfielders in world football and they will only continue to improve. Barkley and Walcott are highly exciting players to be welcomed back from injury this year, while Chambers, Stones and Shaw will surely make the 2016 squad. James Ward-Prowse, Will Hughes and Patrick Roberts are impressive young players who are destined for the top.

England’s victory over the Swiss holds greater significance to their manager than just the three points from the toughest fixture in the group. It’s the halting of a story that could have lead to a rather ignominious end to the biggest job of his career – and highlights his opportunity to build a competitive new squad now that the last of the 'Golden Generation' have stepped aside.