3 managerial missteps during 1st round of Euro 2016 matches

For all of the individual brilliance, stunning goals and dazzling team efforts through the first round of Euro 2016, there have been a trio of puzzling tactical choices employed by managers who appear more unsophisticated than wise.

With one game played per country, here's a look at three gaffers, their wide-eyed strategies, and how they have hampered their side's Euro ambitions.

Roy Hodgson (England) vs. Russia

Imagine being Roy Hodgson.

You’re ahead by a goal and bossing the match. Russia has offered very little and England arguably looks the best it has in a major competition since the 4-1 drubbing of the Netherlands in the group stage closer at Euro ’96.

Legs are getting longer, and you peer down the bench with a quarter of an hour to go. Instead of Darius Vassell, Emile Heskey and a collection of broken branches that resemble Peter Crouch, sitting patiently are Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge and Marcus Rashford.

With a chance to deservedly double the lead despite Russia’s improved second-half showing, the official holds up the board, and it’s Jack Wilshere for Wayne Rooney, and nine minutes later, James Milner for Raheem Sterling.

Dull as dishwater.

Brilliant stuff, Roy. You’ve made just two of your three subs, the second coming at the 87th minute and Russia levels with a header in injury time in a match that gives credence to the term "dropped points."

Given the perfect opportunity to throw on Vardy to pair with an isolated Harry Kane or an industrious spark-plug like Rashford, Hodgson went bourgeois and banal.

Twenty years ago when England thrashed the Dutch at Wembley, the goals were courtesy of doubles from Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham. Like Hodgson, Terry Venables had a band of star strikers at his disposal. Shearer and Sheringham started, and the competent duo of Robbie Fowler and Les Ferdinand looked on from the bench. Venables found a way to play two forwards. Hodgson would be wise to do the same.

Consider Wales boss Chris Coleman. Like Hodgson, Coleman has a Fulham managing gig on his resume, and like his elder colleague, had witnessed his side play well through the opening 70 minutes Saturday in Group B opener.

Again, the fourth official lifts his board, with bionic man Joe Ledley introduced for David Edwards and two minutes later, Hal Robson-Kanu for the busy Jonathan Williams. The changes again swung the match in Wales’ favour, and the energetic Kanu scored the winner ten minutes from time.

For the first time in a generation, an England squad is littered with players of artistry and wit, but is led by a boss that lacks an imagination.

Marc Wilmots (Belgium) vs. Italy

Belgium boss Marc Wilmots has a dinner date. He stares longingly at a closet rife with a dozen resplendent pieces, and opts for a tracksuit.

He’s an hour late for the reservation, and meets an exasperated Roy Hodgson at the local bistro. They look at the menu for another hour, have nary a clue what to order and leave hungry.

Blessed with a surplus of centre-backs, a slew of stud strikers, and two world class attacking midfielders, the 70-time capped Red Devil-turned-manager has no clue what his best starting XI is.

Against an undermanned Italy on Monday at Lyon’s shiny new Stade des Lumieres, Wilmots again brought attention to his squad selection for the wrong reasons.

With four centre-backs competing for two spots, Wilmots put Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld in the middle with Thomas Vermaelen, and had usual Spurs partner Jan Vertonghen out wide with Euro recall Laurent Ciman. This isn’t a new problem for Belgium. Central defenders have been routinely used on the flanks, but this one won’t cut it.

Credit to Vermaelen, who was actually quite decent in the middle considering he barely plays football anymore, but with apologies to Montreal Impact fans, the reigning MLS Defender of the Year, Ciman, is a square peg for a round hole at right-back.

Italy’s Antonio Conte countered by playing Matteo Darmian and Antonio Candreva as wing-backs, pinning the Belgian full-backs deep and rendering them useless. Some pace and positional familiarity would have helped.

If Wilmots is looking for a solution in his closet, shift Aldeweireld to the right, where he has played for both Belgium and Atletico Madrid, throw the promising Jordan Lukaku out left, and start Jason Denayer or Vermaelen next to Vertonghen in the middle.

A crestfallen Wilmots spoke to the media after the match and amid comments criticizing Italy’s defensive approach, said: "The defeat is a disappointment for everybody involved, but I do not think we lost the tactical battle."

Should have had the tartar.

Erik Hamren (Sweden) vs. Ireland

If it’s at all possible to feel even the slightest of sympathies for the ever-sanguine Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Monday’s draw against Ireland would be it.

An aristocratic pedigree among the sans-culottes, Sweden’s ponytailed Robespierre could do little but watch as his side routinely gave away possession and offered nothing in the midfield.

Surely nothing more than a coincidence, when Roy Hodgson took his first of four jobs in Sweden with Halmstad, he brought with him two tactical tinkerings: zonal marking and the 4-4-2. Success at Halmstad and later with IK Oddevold, Orebro SK and Malmo spread the virtues of the formation that has since been adopted as the norm within Erik Hamren’s ranks.

For all of its benefits, the 4-4-2’s negative consequences were on display during the 1-1 draw at the Stade de France.

Ibrahimovic was forced to drop deeper and deeper to collect the ball in influential positions, and fellow strike-mate Marcus Berg was at his best moments merely a passenger. Long balls were stymied by the Irish back-four, and most attempts through the middle were halted by an assiduous Glenn Whelan or one of James McCarthy’s numerous madcap tackles.

When Hamren, who is in his third tenure at the helm of the Swedes, finally had enough, he brought on Celta Vigo’s John Guidetti in the 58th minute. A lightning rod for naysayers, Guidetti was functional at drawing defenders away from Ibrahimovic by making intelligent runs, and the side looked a different animal after an introduction that shifted Sweden's silhouette.

It was Robespierre who famously said "pity is treason," though there's hardly any shame in feeling merciful for Ibrahimovic’s plight while toiling in Hamren’s current set-up.