The future of English football is in safe hands…
England manager Roy Hodgson baffled supporters and reporters alike with his lavish praise of his ‘young’ team following Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Costa Rica.
Hodgson handed starts to Luke Shaw, 18, and Ross Barkley, 20, in the drab affair, which saw the Three Lions finish bottom of Group D at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
England shaded possession with 56%, but they only registered one shot on target against the over-performing Central American side, who topped the group with seven points.
Nevertheless, Hodgson was pleased with how the game went, claiming that his side had dominated the game.
“They’ll [young players] play a major part [in the future],” the 66-year-old was quoted by the Daily Mail.
“Today we’ve played with nine players who had never played in the World Cup [before this tournament].
“We’ve just played Costa Rica, who have won the group, and I thought we dominated the game. Certainly there are a lot of very good young players coming through.
“Let’s see how the young players develop over the next two years. As disappointed as I am, I do know that today has given me a lot of positives.
“If these young boys can perform like that at 18, 19 and 20, then in two years they could be even better.”
Hodgson then made a big blunder when bigging up his backline, which was made up of Shaw, Chelsea’s Gary Cahill and Manchester United pair Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.
Cahill is 28 years old and will turn 29 in December, but Hodgson seems to think he’s just 24.
“The back-four did well. With the oldest of them, Gary Cahill at 24, we restricted them to one shot early on,” he added
Costa Rica actually had three shots, two on target.
Despite England’s woeful World Cup, Hodgson is expected to honour his contract, which runs until the end of Euro 2016.
England have failed to record a single win since leaving Europe earlier this summer.
Prior to Tuesday stalemate with Costa Rica, they drew with Ecuador and Honduras in Miami, before losing 2-1 to Italy and Uruguay in Brazil.
SEE ALSO: The 50 best players at the 2014 World Cup.