At one stage on Friday Roy Hodgson quoted the great Holland coach Rinus Michels, but England’s new boss stopped short of promising Total Football amid the total chaos he has inherited.

He said he is doing his best in the circumstances here in Oslo, and it might be worth remembering exactly what those circumstances are before he oversees his first game against Norway this evening.

Of the ‘40 days and 40 nights’ he has before that opening European Championship encounter with France, 25 have already gone. Of those 25, he spent 13 as manager of West Bromwich Albion.

Main man: Roy Hodgson (centre) takes charge of England for the first time against Norway in Oslo

Since then, he has been busy. First he picked his 23-man squad, then he went to Munich to watch his Chelsea players lift the European Cup. Now he is picking a team from a group he has known for three days, with serious concerns over the fitness of a key striker and just 180 minutes of friendly football before picking the 11 players who will open England’s Euro 2012 campaign in Donetsk.

Saturday evening, as he said, is ‘a preparation game’ and a vitally important one at that. ‘I need to learn,’ he said. ‘And I’m entitled, as a football person, to take preparation games for what they are: preparation games.

‘It would disappoint me if the mood of the nation was lowered if we happened to lose against Norway, because I can’t concur with that. We are preparing for something a lot more important — what we do in the Euros and our qualification for Brazil. That’s how I see it.'

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