Three Lions take on Brazil in Rio on Sunday.
England head coach Roy Hodgson has admitted that the Three Lions are not currently winning enough matches, although that is done to the fact that the team are short of high-quality front men he says, reports the Sunday Mirror.
England take on five-time world champions Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night at the famous Maracana stadium looking to make it back-to-back wins against Phil Scolari’s Samba Boys, having also beaten the World Cup hosts 1-0 at Wembley Stadium back in February.
However, Hodgson is going to have to get the better of Brazil without a number of his first-choice attackers following the loss through injury of both Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck.
Liverpool striker Sturridge suffered ankle ligament damage in England’s disappointing 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Wednesday night, while Manchester United forward Welbeck has been forced to withdraw from the friendly after suffering a knee injury in training.
And that means that Hodgson has been left with just two fit attackers with which to take on Brazil, United’s Wayne Rooney and Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermain Defoe.
“We don’t win enough games but it’s fairly obvious here that one of the areas where we’ve been unfortunate is in the choice of front players and availability of front players,” said Hodgson, who has won just nine of this 16 matches in charge of England since succeeding Fabio Capello in May 2012.
“If you look at the Premier League, most of the strikers are foreigners but there’s nothing we can do about it.
“To some extent you want goalscorers. Barcelona are a fantastic team but as soon as Messi doesn’t play at the end of the season they start losing. Manchester United had a wonderful year but without Robin van Persie’s 25 goals would they have had quite as easy a chance to win the title?”
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