England boss Roy Hodgson has told kicker that he will call up several young players for the World Cup.
With the announcement of the preliminary World Cup squads less than a month away, Hodgson has revealed he will put his faith in younger players for the tournament in Brazil.
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“I only called up a few new players like Jordan Henderson or Danny Welbeck, Andy Carroll and most of all Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the 2012 European Championships. When I’ll announce the World Cup squad, I will call up more younger and less experienced players,” Hodgson told kicker.
“But that’s all part of a natural transition phase experienced by all football nations,” he added. “You sometimes have an especially good generation like Spain in the past six years. But they will now need a new generation for the next six years.”
Hodgson said that the 19-year old Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling “is one of the 30 to 35 candidates in my head.”
“But you have to be careful to not completely lean towards one direction. It’s neither “young is good and old is bad” nor “experience is everything, youth is bad.” It’s only about the players. There are young ones, who might lack experience, but whose qualities weigh it up and make them better than experienced players. Others are experienced and thus have other qualities,” Hodgson said.
Asked whether England go to the World Cup to win it, he answered: “Yes, I would say that -- without claiming that we will win it. We’ll go there to play our best football. We believe in us.
“If the players can access their top performances and we have some luck, we can win it. Denmark and Greece have also won the European Championships. But if we can really pull it off is down to if the players playing good enough, if we are prepared good enough and if the organisation runs smoothly. And my job is to take care of exactly that.”