Wales vs Northern Ireland: Chris Coleman claims to have Roy Hodgson’s tactical number ahead of friendly

Chris Coleman believes he already knows England’s Euro 2016 game plan inside out. The Wales manager organised this friendly against Northern Ireland at Cardiff City Stadium in order to replicate the white heat of a Home Nations fixture after his side were drawn against Roy Hodgson’s team in the group stage of Euro 2016.

The match on 16 June at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens is eagerly awaited and is sure to be a full-blooded “British” game. But Coleman claims he does not feel the need to dash from his side’s game in Ukraine on Monday to be in the Wembley audience for England’s game against the Netherlands 24 hours later.

Instead the 45-year-old believes he has already sussed out England’s tactical approach, and is not expecting any change in game plan or selection policy before the finals roll around. “I know Roy very well,” said the Wales manager here. “He rarely changes tactically, he is a very thorough manager and coach and he believes in what he believes in.

“He will not change things against Holland, and they will not change how they play. If they were going to change formation drastically it would be something I would study but I don’t think that is going to happen. We all know what England will bring to the Euros, I do not see that changing.

“We do not have to scout them the same way we would scout other sides. We are not being disrespectful to a team of their quality but we know all about them. We see their players every week, and I know Roy and Ray Lewington [Hodgson’s assistant] very well. I have seen them many times and they do not do things differently.

“They do not change things much. We will do our homework but it is not a team we need to scrutinise like Slovakia and Russia.”

Coleman will be without a lengthy list of injured regular players against Michael O’Neill’s fellow Euro finalists with Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Andy King, James Collins and Hal Robson-Kanu among the absentees. The Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward is set to win a first cap off the bench while the likes of Adam Matthews, Jonny Williams and Sam Vokes will also get the chance to stake a claim.

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Yet it has been the period beyond the Euros that has garnered every bit as much attention as tournament preparations, owing to the ongoing uncertainty over Coleman’s future. The former Fulham manager is out of contract in the summer and a deal for him to remain in charge for the 2018 World Cup qualification campaign is still some way from being agreed.

But Coleman insists the issue will not prove a distraction or derail Welsh hopes of a successful competition.

“I think we have worked so hard as a group to get to this point that I do not think the players would lose focus over it,” said Coleman. “The situation we find ourselves in and what we have achieved is a lot bigger than me. It is all about this tournament and doing as well as we can.

“That is all we can think about, everything else is in the future. We are concentrating on this. I am looking forward to what is coming. I have always said if things were right, of course I want to have a crack at a World Cup campaign, absolutely, if things are right. But at the minute we are where we are and I am totally focused on the game in front of me.”