Deploying England’s prolific striking trio for the first time as a combination didn’t produce the desired outcome — even against a Portugal side reduced to 10 men for most of Thursday’s friendly.
Rather than Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy combining to give England a sparkling send-off to the European Championship, it took defender Chris Smalling’s late goal to seal a 1-0 win over Portugal, which rested Cristiano Ronaldo.
“We didn’t have many chances, none of us, so it is something the manager is working on and Portugal made it difficult,” Rooney said. “It is a 23-man squad, not three players. It is about all of us, not three of us.”
England departs for Euro 2016 with three successive victories in the warm-up games but they were all secured by one-goal margins, slender successes Hodgson didn’t mind because they dampen expectations surrounding this emerging squad.
A conundrum for Hodgson before the June 11 opener against Russia in France is whether he can accommodate Rooney, Kane and Vardy together in the starting lineup again.
Kane and Vardy, the Premier league’s top two scorers last season with 49 goals between them, were shunted out wide to make way for Rooney centrally at Wembley Stadium.
“We played with split strikers,” Hodgson said. “When you play with that system, you need your strikers to split. If you play with them going down the middle and Rooney in behind them, you would never be able to defend the wide areas.”
Rooney, the 30-year-old captain, was on target with a first-half header but couldn’t score a record-extending 53rd England goal. And while Kane produced one shot on goal, Vardy struggled to get near the net.
“There were moments in the game where they were too wide,” Hodgson said of his strikers. “Basically speaking their job is to split and come together.”
It took a precision cross from substitute Raheem Sterling, pinged to Smalling’s head in the 86th minute, for England to provide a more upbeat end to a frustrating night in north london.
“We are winning games when we are not playing well,” Rooney said. “In tournamentfootball you have to improve to win games.”
The game offered encouragement to Portugal coach Fernando Santos on what could have been a demoralizing night ahead of Euro 2016.