David Platt: Roy Hodgson has some big decisions should England reach last eight
Ex-England great believes Three Lions havespirit to reach the last eight - but Roy needs to settle on his best team
ROY HODGSON may not know his best team until, hopefully, we reach the last eight.
The changes he made to good effect on Thursday might suggest he has the XI to take on this tournament — with Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge both playing.
But more will emerge in the final group game and indeed the first knockout round, because I fully expect us to win both of those.
It is then that Hodgson’s mind will be made up on the side who could even go on and win this.
I know from my own experience how things can change as a tournament goes on.
At the start of Italia ’90 I was just delighted to be in the squad.
By the end of it I was a starting both a quarter and semi-final of a World Cup.
I was happy to be on the bench ahead the likes of Neil Webb at the beginning of the tournament.
The number of subs were restricted back then and I expected to be one of those in the stands — so it was a major boost.
Of course everything changed for me with that extra-time goal against Belgium.
But I would not even have been on the pitch had Bryan Robson not got injured at the start of the campaign.
I was well down the pecking order of midfielders.
After coming on for Steve McMahon I kept my place for what turned out to be the final two games.
The team and tactics evolved as we progressed, going to three at the back after the first two group games.
People and the team grew into the tournament.
You might think a manager should know his team and tactics long before a tournament and not be messing about with them when it all kicks off.
But it is at a tournament when a manager really finds out about his players, rather than with intermittent qualifiers and friendlies.
He can observe the players every day in training and games in quick succession.
So while you might think Harry Kane’s race is run, it could well be that he finds his form again.
The Spurs man could show Hodgson something on the training field and get back in.
There has to be a case of horses for courses too.
I did not start Euro ’96 because of the tactics boss Terry Venables wanted to use.
You might consider that by then I was pretty much a senior player who would be expecting to play.
But he explained to me that if we played four defenders, then I was out.
This was because there was then space for just two midfielders and he wanted Paul Ince with Paul Gascoigne.
I could not argue with his thinking.
Ince was banned in the first knockout round against Spain and I was in — but not in my normal role as a midfielder who bursts forward.
The manager wanted me to play the Ince role as a deep- lying defensive midfielder.
Come the Germany game all three of us were in the midfield as we went with three at the back.
The manager plotted a course through the tournament using the players at his disposal and I was part of that plan.
Of course, you have to look at form when picking players, which is why Kane started this tournament. But his first game and a half were disappointing.
He will undoubtedly be left out now, with Vardy starting and, I suspect, Sturridge.
Manchester United starlet Marcus Rashford, 18, might yet finish the tournament in the starting line-up — you just don’t know and injuries can also play a part.
But what the manager has done on the back of the Wales win is prove he CAN influence games.
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And whatever move he goes with next, he does so with the knowledge that last time he got it right.
A player’s confidence can lift with a goal, an assist, a penalty save and the like.
Well, have a thought for the boss too.
It can often be a very lonely job because he, in the end, will carry the can.
But when he makes the right call, he too can be filled with confidence where before there may have been some doubts.