Hodgson: Dreaming of World Cup glory

England boss Roy Hodgson says the team should fight the doom-mongers and believe they can lift the 2014 World Cup.

The 65-year-old replaced Fabio Capello in May following the Italian's resignation



and led England to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 in his first major championship at the helm.



England's only tournament triumph was the 1966 World Cup, but not having reached a semi-final of a major event since Euro '96, few will expect too many fireworks on the biggest stage in Brazil in 18 months.



But pointing to Chelsea's hugely unlikely Champions League glory last season, Hodgson told BBC's Radio 5 live: "You could say we are far from being favourites for the World Cup so therefore winning it is not a likelihood.



"But you've got to shy away from 'impossible' in football. There are plenty of events that we could point to in footballing terms that you could have said were impossible, but people have done it.



"It wasn't likely that Chelsea would become champions of Europe, especially having to change their manager in mid-stream but they did.



"That was by beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich, two of the best teams in Europe along the way, so I'd like to keep that dream alive."



The former Fulham manager strongly denied the claim that there was a severe shortage of quality players available to him.



"I hope that I will never been tripped into saying, 'well, we don't have enough players or there's not enough players good enough to play for England' because that would be a very sad indictment," Hodgson added.



"I know there are a lot of foreigners in the league, but there's plenty of English ones. There were seven Englishmen playing for Manchester United the other day and they're top of the Premier League.



"I hope I'm not going to be tricked into saying that some time to disguise my disappointment in a defeat or to try and shift the blame to somebody else."



Many of England's players were lambasted for a lacklustre showing at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, after being knocked out in the last 16 with a 4-1 crushing defeat by Germany.



But Hodgson was adamant the general public needed to appreciate the pressures of performing at the highest level, adding: "I would like to see a little bit more kindness sometimes offered to the players.



"There's no doubt in my mind there are as aware of anybody we need to win, we need to bring something back to the English public.



"But sometimes if you put so much pressure on these young people there's no doubt they can be hampered by that rather than encouraged.



"And it's that delicate balance of having the expectation which propels you forward because you want to succeed and you want to show people you can meet their expectations or freezing a little bit because you feel, 'whatever I do is never going to be good enough'."



England currently sit second in World Cup qualifying Group H, two points behind Montenegro after four games.



Hodgson said: "We are aiming to finish on top of the group and not have to go through a play-off situation where you can quite easily lose as well.



"If we can't win the group let's hope to God we can come second and give ourselves a chance at least in the play-offs because the goal is to reach Brazil in 2014.



"In an ideal world we would do it by winning the group and sailing through and be ready when it comes around, but there's no guarantee of course that winning the group and sailing through your group stages helps you when you get to the final competition. We've seen that with England."



England went out of Euro 2012 following yet another penalty shoot-out defeat and Hodgson said he liked the idea of taking spot-kicks after friendlies next year to prepare players for the real thing in front of a packed crowd.



When asked if the England job would be his last, he said: "It would be nice to think it could be.



"It would be nice to think I could be in the job for a sufficient period of time when the time comes to an end to say, 'that's been a great career, I've enjoyed it, I'm quite old, now it's time to pass over to younger people'.



"But it's a dangerous thing to say as well. Football's in your blood."



Hodgson also urged people not to trust everything they read about him.



He added: "I was told by my sister that on Wikipedia I have two sons and I



don't know where the other one's come from. And that I'm a great Rolling Stones fan and, with great respect to the Rolling Stones, I was brought up with soul music and rhythm and blues.

"There're a lot of things that can the written about you. Another thing I



heard strangely enough was that I'm a harmonica player. Someone less musical than me would be hard to find."

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Rooney: Tipped to perform well at the World Cup

Roy Hodgson has tipped Wayne Rooney to be one of the stars of the tournament at the next World Cup in Brazil, but admits the pressure to perform can be too much for even the best players.

Rooney failed to impress at the 2010 World Cup and, after being suspended for the first two games of Euro 2012, barely made an impact in Poland and Ukraine this summer.



Hodgson hopes the atmosphere in Brazil will bring out the best in Rooney and has revealed just how determined the Manchester United striker is to leave an impression on the greatest stage.



"Wayne could thrive here on this stage. He's a great player, a player who decides games, and he could be one of the stars of the tournament," Hodgson told The Times on a visit to Rio de Janeiro this week.



"He's an unbelievably talented player who, in his own opinion, still has unfinished business there.



"He would love, I'm sure, to have a great World Cup. He's a player who desperately wants to do well for England and he was desperately proud when I gave him the captaincy against San Marino.



"Nobody wants to do better than him, but of course he bears that burden every time he steps on to the field."



There is a huge level of expectation on Rooney and Hodgson appreciates how difficult that can be to handle.



"The whole of England, including the press, expect him to play at the very, very top of his game and sometimes, of course, he can't do that being a human being," explained the Three Lions manager.



"Quite often in World Cups the responsibility falls upon one outstanding player to bring his team through, and it can be too much. I remember 1994; Roberto Baggio was a massive star - I worked with him later at Inter Milan - and the pressure upon him to really deliver for Italy proved a little bit too much.



"At the last World Cup, we all thought Lionel Messi was going to be the man and perhaps he wasn't.



"Quite often the players have had this burden to carry on their shoulders. We've seen it in glimpses, but at the end they maybe haven't quite done so but still rank among the world's greatest players."

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Hodgson feeling pressure of England job

England manager Roy Hodgson has revealed he is still learning to deal with the pressure that comes with managing a national side.



Hodgson was criticised for the manner of England's exit from Euro 2012 after a penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals.



The former Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion boss has acknowledged he is still learning to deal with the extra scrutiny that comes with the position.



"I don't know how much I enjoy it," Hodgson told reporters.



"I enjoy the job of being the England national team manager and I accept the things that go with that.



"I certainly don't seek out the cameras but I know they're going to follow me and I have to learn to live with it.



"I'm sure I will get caught out on many occasions doing something I shouldn't."



Hodgson refused to be drawn on the issue of David Beckham's exclusion from the Great Britain Olympic team by coach Stuart Pearce, but said he is keen to see how the young side fares.



"Stuart was given the autonomy to select his team, it was his decision that David would not be a part of it and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to be involved in any comments towards that," he said.



"I'm sure the decision has been debated pretty thoroughly but I've not been a part of it.



"It should be a very good event, and their group is a very interesting one.



"It's a very good competition because it's open to the top professionals, that's very different to the old days."



Great Britain will open their Olympic campaign at Old Trafford on Thursday when they take on Senegal.

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Hodgson defends Rooney over Capello criticism

England manager has defended Wayne Rooney's performance at Euro 2012 after Fabio Capello's criticism of the forward.



The former Three Lions manager hit out at Rooney's 'lost in translation' jibe on Tuesday by suggesting that he could 'only understand Scottish'.



Hodgson, however, leapt to the defence of the 26-year-old before continuing to praise the squad for their efforts in Poland and Ukraine, where they fell in the quarter-finals to Italy.



"Capello is entitled to his opinions, I suppose," Hodgson told talkSPORT. "I don't know what relationship he would have had with Wayne but I always think it's a bit cheap to kid on a player who was so anxious to do well.



"His attitude was magnificent. He was putting in extra work in training because he was concerned he was behind the others having missed the first two games through suspension.



"He was trying to do extra work and we were trying to put the brakes on. His desire to do well was enormous.



"In the final game (against Italy) he, along with one or two other players, didn't play to the level he can but that's what football is about. If every player was a robot and played at the same level in every game then football would be a very simple game and we wouldn't need coaches."



Aside from a promising opening 20 minutes in which Glen Johnson and Danny Welbeck were unlucky not to score, England were vastly outplayed by Italy on Sunday and eventually succumbed to defeat in the dreaded penalty shootout.



"Maybe it (the quarter-final) was a bridge too far," Hodgson said. "We ran out of legs a bit in the final part and didn't keep the ball as well as we should have done but it was a valiant effort to take the game to penalties.



"There was a brief period in the first half when we showed what we could do but we couldn't keep that up. Getting to penalties was the best we could do.



"I don't think we could have done much more. The players' focus couldn’t have been better, and the effort couldn't have been better.



"In the first half that showed. At half-time I didn't see any reason to believe we couldn't win the game. But in the second half and extra-time it was obvious they were in the ascendancy and we were thankful for some magnificent defending to make sure we stayed in the game.



"There was no surrender. It was a great effort and I feel very proud of what the players did for me on the pitch. But there will always be recriminations if you don't get as far as you'd like, and achieve what you want to."

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