Jamie Vardy 'a strong contender' for England's Euro 2016 squad, says Roy Hodgson
Friday 11 December 2015 23:45, UK
Roy Hodgson says in-form striker Jamie Vardy is a "very strong contender" to be part of the England squad at next summer's Euro 2016 finals in France.
The England manager is in Paris for Saturday's tournament draw in which England are one of the top seeds.
Regarding Vardy's claim for an England spot, following his excellent run of scoring in 11 consecutive Premier League games, Hodgson said: "He has received an awful lot of praise but he deserves it.
"But on top of that, he has done it playing very much as a team player, so his contribution outside of the goals has been quite enormous.
"You can't get a much better contribution than match-winning goals, but he has actually done an awful lot of running, chasing, making very good runs behind defenders, constantly being a thorn in the side of every defence he has played against and working his socks of defensively for Leicester to make sure that any lead they have got, they are able to keep.
"That is a very commendable thing for him. To do it having arrived in top level football so late - it was really only in the latter part of last season that he started to make a serious mark and attract our attention as a regular Leicester City player.
"It has been a remarkable rise and a remarkable success story and we can only hope that he can keep his form up.
"He won't score in every game between now and when I select a team for the Euros - but what he can do is continue to be Jamie Vardy, playing in the way Jamie Vardy does, and that is always going to make him a very strong contender."
England will be among the top seeds when the draw is announced, but Hodgson said his side will not take any of their potential opponents lightly.
"The beauty is that this good run of form has put us among the top seeds, there was only five places, so it was good to get one of those five," Hodgson added.
"So to be in that top pool and avoid five other very strong teams is obviously a very big advantage.
"But if you go down to the so-called weakest pool, there are lots of teams in there who are a quite capable of beating the top seeds on their day. Witness Ireland against Germany, and that was in a qualifier not even a friendly.
"And I am reasonably confident that we are hard to beat. In ten qualifying games we only conceded three goals.
"We're not an easy team to score past and beat, which is good news for the future, and I think we have some very good quality players in our front six, all of whom could win a game for us, so in terms of the make-up of our team I think we have reasons for optimism."
