Hodgson's Barkley Choice Has Echoes Of Gazza
Updated: 3:02am UK, Sunday 08 June 2014
By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent
England completed their preparations for the World Cup with a game that will be remembered longer for how it was stopped than anything that happened when it was on.
The match against Honduras was delayed for 40 minutes midway through the first half by the threat of lightning strikes.
Weather interruptions are a fact of life in the Florida hurricane belt, but Roy Hodgson may not have expected this when he selected the city as a preparation camp for the heat of Manaus.
Flashes of brilliance from his players were less evident on the field, though for a second game running an England friendly saw a red card, this time for Honduras's Brayan Beckeles.
A 0-0 draw against a team that will also be in Brazil is no cause for alarm, and this was a good workout for what could be Hodgson's starting XI against Italy next week.
The manager appears to have two choices.
First, whether to replace Danny Welbeck with Liverpool's Raheem Sterling, devastating in training but missing through suspension for his sending off against Ecuador on Wednesday.
The second is an almost existential decision.
Should Hodgson take a chance on the wonderfully gifted but utterly unproven Ross Barkley in the creative No 10 role?
Twice in a week Barkley has demonstrated his huge promise and the risk that would come with his selection.
No one in the England squad has his ability to spirit past opponents and few have his imagination on the ball.
But, and it is a but that weighs heavily on Hodgson's mind, his adventure can lead to him giving the ball away.
In international football that is a sin that can prove deadly.
The debate is reminiscent of that which surrounded Paul Gascoigne, the player Barkley most resembles, in the build up to Italia 90.
Gascoigne played his way into the squad in the spring of 1990 but Bobby Robson was still uncertain as the tournament loomed.
"At international level players have to be 100% reliable" he told author Pete Davies, in his seminal account of the tournament All Played Out.
In the end of course Robson trusted him, and it took England to a World Cup semi-final.
We wait to see if Hodgson takes a chance that could transform England's tournament.
My bet? He will not.
England likely starting XI v Italy: Hart; Johnson, Jagielka, Cahill, Baines; Gerrard, Henderson; Lallana, Rooney, Sterling; Sturridge.
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