World on Roy's shoulders: Sleepless nights await for Hodgson ahead of crunch ties.

As Roy Hodgson demonstrated with disarming honesty on Thursday, a sense of anxiety within the England team goes way beyond whatever it is that’s eating the goalkeeper right now.
At Wembley, the England manager invited us into his own nightmares and dreams, his thoughts dominated, understandably, by the Brazil-or-bust situation that he faces over the next 11 days.
Hodgson is paid handsomely by the Football Association but at this moment there can’t be many who would happily trade places with a man who talks of ‘sleepless nights’ and ‘doomsday scenarios’, who imagines his world collapsing around him because a centre half slips or a centre forward stumbles.

Under pressure: Roy Hodgson gave an in-depth talk at Wembley about his feelings about England's next games

If it was not quite the confession of a dangerous mind, it was certainly the confession of a troubled mind; of a man wrestling with the terrifying  prospect of failure and all that failure to reach a World Cup as England  manager represents.
A powerful monologue from Hodgson was prompted simply by the question of whether he took any comfort from the unequivocal support he received from his chairman.
Greg Dyke, relatively new at the FA, said Hodgson’s job was safe irrespective of results against Montenegro and Poland.
‘I was half-expecting these questions,’ said Hodgson. ‘And there’s no answer that you can give that will be regarded as satisfactory, unless I say something outrageous.

Experience: Hodgson knows his team must keep their cool, but admitted he will have sleepless nights

Captain fantastic: Steven Gerrard (right) will lead the team out

‘But I’m not famed for my outrageous statements.
‘There are always bridges to cross in your life and your footballing career. When that bridge appears, you cross it. But I don’t cross bridges before I come to them and the doomsday scenarios put before me I won’t have to confront because I believe the team will do it.
‘There’s very good support for the team. The team, when we put out our best side, is a very good team.
‘But I will have my fair share of  sleepless nights, hoping that my  centre back doesn’t fall over or the centre forward slip up in front of an open goal.’

Cheer up, Joe! Manchester City's Hart has kept his place as England's No 1

Hodgson spoke of a sense of responsibility — and what a responsibility — not just to England’s fans, to the country as a whole, but to his players and his employers; to the four men on the Club England board who ignored the clamour for Harry Redknapp and appointed him instead.
‘I’m feeling nervous about them (the games) in the sense there’s a nervous tension I feel before every game,’ he said. ‘As a player, you feel that. However well you prepare a game as a player or a coach, things can still go wrong. It’s not a science. Decisions go for and against you. Sometimes you get decisions you don’t deserve. Other times you’re lucky.
‘But I’m confident the team can do it and I’m pleased we’re in a situation where we know that, by winning a game, we can qualify. It’s up to us to do that. I’ve never shied away from the responsibility and I won’t now.
‘My whole life at the moment is focused on these two games. They are the most important games of my life because they are the next two. But I don’t want to consider engagements here or there. October 11 and 15. That’s it.
‘You can’t be involved at this level and not be nervous. You might try to control it, but anyone who says they’re not nervous suggests a laissez faire attitude. I’ll not be accused of that.’
Apart from expressing his support for under-pressure goalkeeper Joe Hart, the England manager was reluctant to reveal too much about  his plans.
But a reluctance to enter into a debate about the respective merits of James Milner and Andros Townsend did suggest he might have something in mind for the young Tottenham winger.

Strike duo: Hodgson is excited to have Daniel Sturridge (left) and Wayne Rooney (right) playing together

Contrast: And he must decide between the raw pace of Andros Townsend (above) and the industrial nature of James Milner (below) on the wing

Milner is a man for a tough away trip to Kiev, granted, but England need to win these games and Townsend might offer exactly the kind of attacking threat Hodgson requires, particularly when he seems so enthused by the prospect of deploying Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge in the same front line as Danny Welbeck.
‘I know we’re capable of playing some very good attacking football,’ he said. ‘We’ve shown that, even against Brazil.’
Ah yes, Roy, Brazil.