World Cup

Roy Hodgson looking to develop England striking partnerships

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 26 May 2014

England manager Roy Hodgson is looking to develop the striking partnership between Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney in the coming weeks.

England manager Roy Hodgson has expressed his belief that Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney will begin to forge a striking partnership in the coming weeks.

Sturridge drew plenty of plaudits for the way he combined with Luis Suarez for Liverpool during the 2013-14 Premier League campaign, and hopes are high that he can build a similar understanding with Rooney.

While Hodgson stopped short of backing the duo to replicate Suarez and Sturridge's fine domestic form, he does believe that the partnership between his strikers will begin to develop more this week.

"We've seen an awful lot of the Sturridge-Suarez partnership but not a lot of the Rooney-Sturridge partnership because they haven't had a lot of time to play together and now's our chance," Hodgson is quoted as saying by PA.

"From this week we start to move away from bigger focus on fitness and getting people in the right shape to tactical preparation. That's when the partnerships will start to develop.

"It won't just be Rooney-Sturridge, we will be working on [Danny] Welbeck and [Rickie] Lambert as well. I think it's too early to start making big bold statements and judgements on the Rooney-Sturridge partnership being X or Y because we haven't seen enough of it."

England begin their World Cup campaign against Italy on June 14 in Manaus.