Glasgow: England manager Roy Hodgson admitted on Monday that his players are still digesting the disappointment of their World Cup group-stage exit despite their impressive form since the tournament.
England have won all of the five games they have played since their first-round elimination in Brazil till the eve of their clash against old rivals Scotland. But when asked to assess the progress his side have made since the World Cup, Hodgson played down suggestions that their run of success represented a fresh start.
“It’s a difficult one for me. If I say what I really think, people will turn it against me,” he told journalists in Glasgow.
“The World Cup was a real cold shower for us, a real bad moment. I thought we were doing quite a lot of things that were leading up to see what we’d hope.
“Then we lost two matches and we’ve hit a wall, and supposedly we have to start again. I don’t think we’ve started again.
“We did have a massive barrier to get over after the World Cup, because we created that barrier by losing two matches. We erected the fence.
“But I don’t think we started at the World Cup and have now got somewhere. We’d always been working towards what we’re getting today.”
England captain Wayne Rooney, seated beside Hodgson in a draughty press marquee outside Celtic Park, concurred.
“Before the World Cup we were playing well, in good form, then the two games ... it was difficult to get over them,” he said.
“We had to try and forget about that as quickly as we could and continue the form we’d shown before, to keep improving. We’re doing that gradually. Then we’ll take that form into a major tournament.”
