Between the sticks: Robert Green (centre) will make his first appearance since his howler against the USA

Hodgson was reminded of something he said during training at the Etihad the previous day; the instruction he gave to knock the ball up to the big man. He gave an eloquent, amusing explanation and argued that there is a place for a more direct approach in the beautiful game.

'I once heard Rinus Michels talking about his philosophy at a technical study group,’ said Hodgson.

‘Someone said when he played, he played Total Football and so on. He said “no”. He always had a big striker in his team and when they were losing with 15 minutes to go, he would stick him on and ask the team to kick it up to him quickly and rush after him. “I always wanted to win,” he said. That was Michel’s philosophy. So if he can say that ...’

Hodgson gave a fine performance, but was he nervous? He said ‘no’.

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