Captain Wayne Rooney has attributed England’s Euro 2016 failure to Roy Hodgson’s unsuccessful team line-up changes.
Hodgson made six changes to England’s final group match against Slovakia and the goalless draw in the match cost England the top spot in their group. England then lost to Iceland 1-2 in their last 16 stage match, reports Xinhua.
Rooney was one of those rested by Hodgson and the Manchester United forward said the loss of momentum caused by Hodgson’s decision was crucial to the team’s surprising defeat against Iceland.
“I wouldn’t have rested six players. It’s more than half the team. It was a gamble and it didn’t pay off,” Rooney told the Daily Mail on Monday.
“We had lost momentum from the Slovakia game and tournament football is about confidence. You get that from winning.”
“We didn’t play great in the friendlies, but we won. So you try to build, even from before the tournament, but we couldn’t get that consistency once it began,” he added.
“It was Roy’s decision to make changes against Slovakia and either way, the team he put out should have been able to win. But, right or wrong, I wanted to play and I can’t deny that.”
jakub joins Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg have signed Polish midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund for three years, both the German football clubs confirmed on Monday.
The 30-year-old strengthens the “Wolves” offence after German Andre Schurrle left for Dortmund last week. The contract keeps Blaszczykowski in Wolfsburg until June 2019, reports Xinhua.
“We clearly increased our versatility and effectiveness on the right wing with this signing,” Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking told the club’s official homepage. “Jakub has a vast experience and is a tremendous asset for us.”
Blaszczykowski played since 2007 for Borussia Dortmund where he scored 27 goals in 197 appearances ever since. He won with Dortmund the Bundesliga title in 2011 and the German domestic double in 2012.
However, after the departure of coach Juergen Klopp and the arrival of Thomas Tuchel, the Poland international was loaned to Italian outfit ACF Fiorentina on August 2015. During the season-long loan deal, the midfielder scored two goals in 15 games.
Wolfsburg’s sixth summer transfer is since 2006 part of Poland’s national squad, where he made 84 caps to provide 18 goals, and will join his new teammates in the trainings camp soon.
Dortmund and Wolfsburg agreed to keep silence over the transfer fee.
Hecking’s men face Augsburg for the first round in German Bundesliga on August 27.
Gignac on Barca’s radar
French striker Andre-Pierre Gignac, who is currently playing for Mexican side Tigres UANl, is being targeted by Spanish football champions Barcelona, who seek to support their attacking lines, according to media reports.
Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo reported on Monday that Barcelona’s sporting director Roberto Fernandez has spoken with the Frenchman and his club to see if there is a possibility of hiring his services.
Gignac, 30, who played with France in Euro 2016, is one of the favourites to join Barcelona on the bench as a substitute for the attacking trio of lionel Messi, lui Suarez and Neymar, reports Efe.
El Mundo Deportivo explained that Barcelona’s list of interests also includes the Croatian Mario Mandzukic of Juventus, Germany’s Mario Gomez of Fiorentina and Colombian Carlos Bacca of AC Milan.
In the meantime, Roberto Fernandez is touring latin America in search of a striker that will complete the missing spot in luis Enrique’s squad before the beginning of the new season. Gignac started off his career in FC lorient for three seasons, and then he moved for four seasons to Toulouse, then to Marseille for five seasons, before heading to Mexico, where he scored 33 goals with Tigres UANl in 50 games in the 2015-16 season.