Hodgson hoping pressure eases

England boss Roy Hodgson has called for the team’s fans to lower their expectations this summer, as he believes it will bring the best out of his young side.

In the last 50 years the Three Lions have come under immense pressure going into every major tournament.

That was evident at the 2014 World Cup, but Hodgson’s men crashed out at the first hurdle, and the current form of the squad has got most fans excited.

Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Danny Rose are all in top form, while Jamie Vardy, Joe Hart, Danny Drinkwater and James Milner have all had impressive campaigns.

Only four of Hodgson’s 26-man provisional squad have picked up more than 40 caps and 13 have 10 or fewer.

However, he is adamant that less expectation will bring the best out of his young players as they try to qualify from Group B and go all the way. “Maybe it might be the time to leave off these lads a little bit and stop trying to batter them with past failures of previous England teams going back to 1970 to 2014,” he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports. ”

We don’t want them to be fearful. This group don’t have baggage. They aren’t weighed down by the sins of the fathers. That’s what our message will be.

“Maybe we should, in actual fact, be looking forward more to what these young players could possibly do for us rather than to expect them to take some sudden revenge for the fact that the 2014 tournament was not highly regarded in terms of our performance.”

England take on Turkey on Sunday and they are the 1.15 favourites to win, with the draw priced at 4.00 while Turkey can be backed at odds of 7.00.