You never know where you are with perceptions of Roy Hodgson. One minute he’s supposed to be hopelessly unadventurous; the next he’s a mad gambler, making six changes in a winning team.
Actually there were only four changes in the Hodgson side who overcame Wales, for Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge, who scored after appearing as a substitute in Lens, were wisely retained. It would have been truly perverse of the England manager not to start them against Slovakia.
At least now he and the rest of us know from a scoreless match that, while Vardy and Sturridge may be potent forces, they are not guaranteed world-beaters. Another positive way of looking at it is that all but four of the squad — two of them goalkeepers — now have Euro 2016 experience.
But the campaign did lose momentum and Hodgson, as the man responsible, does have to consider the lessons of that.
Again, they were palatable and otherwise. While resting one of his star men of the tournament, Kyle Walker, may have seemed crazy to some, refreshment of the full-back positions was one of Mauricio Pochettino’s successful ploys at Tottenham last season — and here again it worked, with Nathaniel Clyne performing superbly.
But Jack Wilshere? He was the chip that stayed on black while the wheel kept coming up red. I suppose that, after he had missed almost the entire season through injury, we assumed some England performance analysis was nevertheless indicating match-fitness. If this was the case, it erred.
Wilshere was seriously unready to take over from Wayne Rooney in midfield. While Jordan Henderson did much to vindicate his selection by curbing the threat of Marek Hamsik, the Arsenal man looked little more than a waste of a shirt that, in my view, would have been better handed to Danny Drinkwater.
Or Andros Townsend, for that matter. I know Wilshere and Townsend offer completely different qualities, but what England cried out for in the second half was a substitute who could twist and turn and surprise the Slovakians. Rooney and Harry Kane were too easily crowded out. Trial and error or an expensive exercise in tinkering? Time will tell.
