16 October,2012 08:32 AM IST | | Agencies
Under skipper Wayne Rooney, England beat San Marino 5-0 in a recent qualifier despite the absence of a number of experienced players, and now Hodgson is spoilt for choice as he picks his squad for the game against Poland. We have a lot of players who didn't play against San Marino available tomorrow (Tuesday) night so have quite a good option. We try to utilise the squad for the two games, and maybe keep some players back from the San Marino game," Hodgson said yesterday.
"Unfortunately we didn't recover Frank Lampard or Ryan Bertrand but other than that we have a full squad to choose from and quite a few players who didn't take part at all against San Marino," added Hodgson.
Leighton Baines, who started ahead of Chelsea defender Ashley Cole, was impressive, and so was Danny Welbeck who got the nod over Jermain Defoe and went on to score twice against Poland. It's no wonder then Hodgson is not complaining about his task at hand. "There are quite a few (selection decisions) and that's good to have. I'd prefer not to quantify them or put them in any order, but it's good that the players, who came in against San Marino, who people did not see as first choice, played well. You do get more of a selection headache, but all coaches will tell you, selection headaches are what we're after." u00a0