^^
Anyway been thinking about it all week and i firmly believe Hodgson should copy Liverpool's 3-4-1-2 and play in these two qualifiers & once they qualify for Brazil.
-------------------------------------------Hart-------------------------------------------------
-----------------Jones------------------Cahill----------------Smalling---------------------
Johnson----------------Gerrard--------------Carrick----------------------------Baines
--------------------------------------------Wilshere---------------------------------------------
---------------------------Sturridge------------------Rooney---------------------------------
Substitutes: Foster, Forster, Jagielka, Richards, Walker, Cole, Barkley, Henderson, Walcott, Townsend, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Welbeck.
Adopting this formations allows England to eradicate three tactical headaches:
1. Unleashing the full backs: With Glen Johnson & Ashley Cole out for these qualifiers, England have a defensive issue with the full-backs - especially at right-back. Baines is arguably better than the Ashley Cole on current form, but on the opposite flank options with Walker, Jones and Smalling it is slightly tricky.
Walker is a beast going forward, but like Johnson in his younger days, he still has to sort out him defensive acumen. Versus Ukraine in the last qualifier and West Ham on the weekend, that fault was exposed. Although they are center halves by trade Jones and Smalling are more solid defensively when played at right-back, but i am concerned about their lack of consistent game time this season.
Therefore the best option with the first choice full-backs out is to have a 3-man back-line and allow the attacking prowess of Walker and Baines to flourish as wing-backs. I would prefer to have very quick defenders which would mean placing Jagielka on the bench. You add Richards and Steven Caulker to the mix and England in my view have the young quick defenders to adopt to this formation effectively.
2. The Gerrard/Carrick/Wilshere axis: Such a formation will allow these three key mid-fielders to start in their preferred positions in the center of the park. England should not be tempted by Arsenal recent experiment of playing him on the left, since Mesut Ozil arrived.
We don't need that for arguably the most talented England mid-fielder for the next decade. Sven Goran Eriksson decision to do that with Paul Scholes in EURO 2004 criminally depleted England of his services to Manchester United's benefit.
3. Happy strikers: Similarly with the mid-field, this formation will allow Sturridge and Rooney to play as the central strikers that they want, instead of being potentially sacrificed out wide in the sake of team balance.
Using the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation that has been Hodgson's preferred choice in 2013 should be the backup formation, with the plethora of pacy wingers in Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Townsend (Raheem Sterling and Aaron Lennon also in the mix) unleashed on tiring defenses later in games.
However i don't expect Hodgson to be this drastic and will likely play this XI:
-----------------------------Hart-------------------------------------
Jones/Walker----------Cahill--------Jagielka---------------Baines
------------------------Gerrard-------Wilshere--------------------
Townsend---------------------Rooney-------------------Welbeck
--------------------------------Sturridge---------------------------
