Interesting article on the Mirror website. Roy Hodgson pays tribute to Bob Bradley for being sensible in his use of Clint Dempsey, who has to be pretty tired right now.
I think we have worked very hard to ensure he gets the rest periods he needs, sometimes enforcing it upon him. Bob Bradley is very good in that respect. He is aware also that Dempsey is an important man for him and doesn’t want to burn him out by insisting he plays every USA game.
He realises that I, too, am trying to help the player stay fresh as much as I possibly can and he is on the same wavelength, so it’s a very simple discussion.
And, in fact, the USA did something I don’t think any other team did. When they qualified for the World Cup, they had another couple of matches after that and they didn,t use Dempsey for those, they used domestic based players. That is very good.
Hodgson also hints that Dempsey won’t start in Basel on Wednesday.
In the last two games we’ve played in the Europa League, I have had him on the bench to give these guys a rest. We are very aware of the need to juggle.
I am very fortunate in the wide midfield areas that we have tremendous competition for places, so I can afford to leave Duff and Dempsey, who have been the first-choice recently for the wide positions in the league, out of the European games.
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