By SHAUN CUSTIS
ROY HODGSON has used 44 players in his 12 games in charge since taking over from Fabio Capello.
It is enough to field four separate teams.
He has blooded kids such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 19, and Raheem Sterling, 17, as well as oldies such as Everton ace Leon Osman.
But the crucial World Cup qualifier against Montenegro next March will be the acid test.
If England lose, they might not make it to Brazil 2014 at all. Hodgson has to get it right that night.
However, after Wednesday’s 4-2 defeat in Sweden, he insisted that by casting the net so far and wide, he now has a proper idea of where he is going.
Hodgson said: “It was better a defeat comes now than in March. Maybe by then I’ll know a little bit more about players and I might just have a few more weapons in my armoury, thanks to this game.
“I’m in a much better position when it comes to assessing players and knowing what I can get out of an England team than I was on May 13 when I came into the job from West Brom and went straight to the Euros.
“It’s been a very good learning curve and good also for a lot of the players because they have had a taste of what it’s like being in an England squad.
“They didn’t necessarily go to the Euros because that was quite a conservative group we took there.
“If anything, we have become a lot less conservative and the players have responded very positively.
“It’s very good for me to know that someone like Osman, who I’ve thought a lot of for a number of years, can be brought in relatively late in his career and do the job he did against Sweden. I can’t make guarantees he will be with us the next time I put a squad together.
“But one thing’s for sure — I believed in him and he took that chance.
“He stepped in at 31 and gave the performance he did in an experimental team.
“He’s certainly a name we will be discussing very seriously next time.”
Hodgson rejects the argument his experiments have meant it is too easy to get an international cap.
He said: “That’s not the case. We need to assess players, especially in friendlies. One or two I gave a chance to against Sweden really took it and showed that in 2013 we might have a bigger squad than we once thought.
“In the past we have been very reliant on a group of players who had to play at all times and there’s not been an awful lot of support.
“Now there’s more competition for places and certainly more help for the Steven Gerrards and Wayne Rooneys.”
Liverpool winger Sterling certainly appears one of those who is in the England set-up to stay.
Hodgson added: “Brendan Rodgers put Sterling in the firing line at Liverpool and I half-hoped to see some of the things we saw from him.
“He had a golden spell towards the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half and that bodes very well for the future.
“There’s a few players I didn’t have in my mind at the start of the season.
“Tom Cleverley would come into that category as would Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Steven Caulker and Osman.
“I retain a large degree of optimism. I would have been more disappointed if we’d sneaked a 1-1 or a 2-2 but looked totally outplayed or uncomfortable.”
Hodgson will play Sterling and Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha in the next qualifier against whipping boys San Marino on March 22 only if they merit inclusion and not simply to ensure they are tied to England.
The pair are still eligible for Jamaica and the Ivory Coast respectively until they play a competitive game.
Hodgson said: “I don’t believe in ‘tying them down’.
“The chance to play for England, the place where you’ve spent the bulk of your life, had your football education and been a part of the national teams is what matters.
“But, if a player comes to me and says, ‘I’ve played for all the different age-group teams and I don’t want to play for the senior team’, we’ll play with someone else.”
