Roy Hodgson: England squad must learn from France's 2010 World Cup meltdown

"... The thing you can control is your teamwork, making sure you choose a group of players who are prepared to work as a team, that you deal with any problems that come up from individuals that are trying to eat away at the fabric of your team and maybe destroy your teamwork.

"I've always been very clear on that. I don't have any hesitation. When you stand in front of a group of players for the first time and say: 'Listen, the only way we're going to win this is by being a team', you'll find 20 of them will say: 'Yeah, yeah, you're right'.

"But then, if they don't start doing it as a team in the course of the tournament, you're quite entitled to say: 'You didn't ... say anything about it before, you were the first to say you agreed, and now you're out of the team it's a big problem, it's not about the team any more, it's all about you.'

"I've never been afraid to say those things. But luckily I've not had to say it too often."

Hodgson said he had been "lucky" in having a group of senior players that set the right tone for the more youthful members of his squad, singling out captain Steven Gerrard for praise.

"Gerrard has turned out to be such a superb captain, a very good catalyst for the others, someone they all look up to as a player but also as a person, somebody who has very much the right attitude.

"And when he's not been available, then (vice captain) Frank Lampard has done a very similar job, and after that you'd count Wayne Rooney as a young senior: my senior players have been very good in demanding: 'This is the mood we want, this is the type of camp we want.'"