6 Reasons Why England Should Use 3-5-2 Formation
1. A New Manager
Assessing the previous reasons, the starting XI and squad players I believe would best suit this system is:
Hart
Stones Cahill Davies
Walker Henderson Wilshere Baines
Barkley
Sturridge Rooney
Backups: Foster, Forster, Jones, Gibbs, Clyne, Lallana, Sterling, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Huddlestone, Milner, Welbeck, Rodriguez.
Sadly though after two years, two tournaments and 33 games in charge I see no evidence that Hodgson would ever attempt the implement the 3-5-2 with England. The three lion's problem are of course much bigger than getting a new coach, but Hodgson comes across as a manager that can only instruct his teams to play a 4-4-2 system or a slight hybrid of it, which is problematic for England.
After England drew 1-1 with Republic Ireland in 2013, Hodgson claimed his England 4-4-2 is more like Borussia Dortmund of 2012, very fluid 4-2-3-1. Evidence shows that England under his tutelage struggled to ever play like Jurgen Klopp's side in competitive fixtures.
The three-lions needs a coach, who can test the players tactically. The Netherlands could replace Louis Van Gaal with Gus Hiddink and Italy could bring in Antonio Conte to replace Cesare Prandelli. Unfortunately though, the lack of seasoned English coaches in the premier league means that their isn't a clear qualified candidate to replace Hodgson.
The Football Association missed a trick by not letting Harry Redknapp coach England when Capello resigned, because the impressive Brendan Rodgers could have have been shaping England's future right now instead of Liverpool's.
Reading exerts from Harry Redknapp's book, these particular comments stood out:"Redknapp, who was manager of Tottenham when the decision was made, said he wanted Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers - then with Swansea City - to be his assistant."My thinking on Brendan was this: if he can do it with players from the lower leagues at Swansea what can he do with Rio and Terry or Rooney and Gerrard?" he added."So when Tottenham played Swansea on 1 April, 2012 I pulled Brendan after the game and said that if all the speculation about me and England was true would he consider coming to the European Championships in the summer as my part-time coach?"I told him I wanted England to play with as much technical ambition as Swansea. He was up for it.Rodgers later confirmed the approach was made by Redknapp:
Hodgson hasn't done a brilliant job and we will never now how a Redknapp/Rodgers coaching partnership for England would have been. But we have seen how Liverpool with a strong English contingent has been playing under Rodgers. They used the 3-5-2 formation impressively for periods last seasons, before adapting a general 4-4-2 diamond set-up. Clearly England's loss.When he was at Swansea, Rodgers was asked on April 1 at White Hart Lane by Redknapp whether he would be willing to assist England should the then Spurs manager be offered the chance to be Fabio Capellos successor.
He was very confident about being offered the national team job, said Rodgers. He asked me about the possibility of going to work with him for the European Championship.
"It was a quick conversation. I have total respect for Harry. He knows what he wants from a team, knows the players, knows the exciting style of football. What he wanted was someone to come and implement those ideas.
I spoke to Swansea about the possibility. It was a great honour that Harry mentioned it. It would have been an opportunity to show that British players can play football, that they are technically and tactically very strong. They just need that support and confidence.
I was certainly going to consider it but at the end of it there was no decision to make. The job was given to Roy and hes done a brilliant job.