Roy Hodgson says England know it is no normal friendly on Tuesday
Tuesday 17 November 2015 07:28, UK
England manager Roy Hodgson says Tuesday's match with France at Wembley is "not a normal friendly".
As per the wishes of the French authorities, the match will take place as planned, just four nights after terrorist attacks in Paris which left 129 people dead.
And, while Hodgson says himself and his players are fully supportive of the decision, they are aware that the match takes place under a tragic cloud.
Regarding the decision to play the fixture, Hodgson said: "As a manager and a coach, and I speak also for the players, we were totally in the hands of Martin [Glenn, FA chief executive] and Noel [Le Graet, president of the French Football Federation].
"Whatever the decision would have been, we would have respected that.
We will do our best to make a good game of it but we cannot deny the seriousness of the occasion.
"I understand fully that the French authorities had a clear opinion on the subject and wanted the game to go ahead.
"So for us, of course, it was fairly easy for us to go along with that. We will do our best to make a good game of it but we cannot deny the seriousness of the occasion.
"We can't deny the fact that this game is special. This is not a normal friendly because it is occurring only four days after this unbelievable terror attack and unfortunately that is going to be lingering over everybody.
"I believe tomorrow night will be about us showing solidarity and people writing about the reasons for this football match being played, rather than what happens on the field.
"The fact we're publicising the Marseillaise [French anthem] on the big screen shows how we feel.
"You'd need to be a French-speaker to sing along but I'd encourage all the French-speakers in the public to do so."
The England manager is planning to field an experimental line-up due to the rash of injuries which have hit his squad.
He said: "I've got to say I'm finding it hard to balance the enormity of the occasion with questions about the football players. I don't quite know how to balance that up.
"Maybe when the game starts, it will retain an element of normality for me as a manager.
"I think for us, I'm talking purely football now, it would never have taken on the importance we were hoping, simply because so many players are not available for the game.
"It's going to be a young team tomorrow, I think six players are under the age of 22."
Manchester United's Jesse Lingard was called into the squad on Sunday and, on Monday, it was announced that Tottenham midfielder Ryan Mason had also joined the party, in place of the injured Fabian Delph.
The England manager is without around 15 players who could be considered candidates for his Euro 2016 squad.
Hodgson added that none of his players had expressed a reluctance to play on Tuesday in the light of Friday's events.
"Our players were like everyone in the world, they were devastated by the news," he said. "We would have been perfectly content had the decision been taken that, because of the events, the game would have been called off. We'd have accepted that without any discussion or any comment.
"But we were told the game was to go ahead and we've tried to do our best to prepare accordingly, and I don't think there's anybody in particular who would have a reason to say 'I don't want to play the game'.
"A lot of those French players are involved in English football, so there's an enormous empathy between them, but not enough for any of our players to come to myself and say 'because of what's happened we don't want to play the game'."
