Will Roy suffer from Friendly Fire?

England have two important friendlies coming up in the next two weeks, having to have a warm up for the Euro 2012 Championship, but will Roy Hodgson show the positives of England, considering the short time he has had with the players.

Before England’s first game against France on the 11th of June they have to take on both Norway and Belgium, possibly easy wins if England could play up to their tags. But with Roy only being in the job for around a month, we wonder whether he has had enough time to influence change, and to bounce back from a shocking last tournament, and to make up for the Euro 2008 that England didn’t qualify, a night of mistakes, rain and a large umbrella.

England manager Roy Hodgson

Roy has named his 23-man squad for the Euros, and he’ll hope they can do the job away to Norway. You can back England at 6/5 with William Hill, considering that Roy has stated Andy Carroll to start against Norway, giving him a game that he deserves as he has been on very good form lately, furthermore Carroll has been priced by William Hill at 5/1 to be the first goalscorer.

Hodgson has also been acknowledged to give a start to West Ham keeper Robert Green, who hasn’t featured in England’s first team since his mistake against the USA in the 2010 World Cup.

After England’s away trip to Norway Roy’s Lions host Belgium, who have some familiar faces such as Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard and Thomas Vermaelen. But with the England Under 21′s beating the youth of Belgium 4-0, with the inclusion of the now senior players of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson, you could say it will be an interesting encounter.

It seems, however, England can do the job if they put their heads down and get on with it, for this is a chance to impress Roy Hodgson and show the English fans that they are up for this competition, and not to have a repeat of the dreadful display in 2010.

James Keith