Read on to find out what he had to say about the milestone, Nottingham Forest, and their manager Steve Cooper...
Click here to read Hodgson's team news updates ahead of the match.
Another week, another milestone for Roy Hodgson, with the manager set to lead out a side for the 400th time in the Premier League when Crystal Palace face Nottingham Forest at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Read on to find out what he had to say about the milestone, Nottingham Forest, and their manager Steve Cooper...
Click here to read Hodgson's team news updates ahead of the match.
“I don’t keep a record of those statistics – there have been too many now for me to keep a record! It’s a milestone which I’m proud of.
“I’ve a very, very clear memory of [my first game], the Blackburn Rovers v Derby game when I came back from Inter [Milan]. It was on my 50th birthday that day, so I have a very clear memory of it.
“It’s been a privilege to work at this level in a league which has grown exponentially every year. It was a great league, but if you see it today, you’d notice a big difference in the way the league has blossomed really, and certainly in the amount of money that’s come into the game and the level of players who come from all over the world to play in it, and the level of interest from spectators
“Stadiums have got bigger, even the Old Traffords and Arsenal stadiums and Tottenham stadiums, which I thought were pretty big stadiums coming from Italy in 1997, today they’re virtually double the size.
“I’ve only got very good things to say about my time in the league and feel it’s been a great period of time in my life. I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to come back from Italy and try England again.”
“We’ve got to beat Nottingham Forest first and that’s a serious challenge, irrespective of what we’ve done up to this point.
“We have a lot of respect for them, we know that they’re a good team, and we know that they’re going to be very, very hard to beat. I think that’s one of the easiest traps for a football team to fall into: when you get a good result away from home that people don’t expect, you then automatically assume a team more in your ballpark is going to be easy meat.
“That certainly isn’t our way of thinking. We’re concerned about the threat they’re going to pose and about the fact we’d have liked a stronger group of players to get us through that game. It’s not the XI I put out onto the field that concerns me as much, it’s that we don’t have anybody really senior [on the bench] to help us out as the game goes on.
“I think you will all agree the game is becoming much more than an 11-man game, with the extra-time added on and extra intensity. Most teams are turning to four or five substitutes per game, and it’s more that which bothers me than the XI going in the game.”
“We face threats you face with virtually every Premier League team you’re up against.
“You study them in the week leading up to the game. The video analysts, who do such a wonderful job these days, present you with a lot of material you can lay before the players and every team you look at, you see their strengths, you don’t find that many weaknesses, and really you realise that your only chance of getting a result if you can go out and produce your best football.
“I don’t think that’s any different to any manager to whom you ask that question. It’s not so simple. The teams are getting so strong in the Premier League now that there are no weaknesses and you’ve got to make certain, your only chance is if your players, especially the players who are going to make a decisive difference for you, bring that game to Selhurst Park on Saturday early evening.”
“He’s done a wonderful job. He worked with a friend of mine, Keith Downing, to win that [Under-17s] World Cup [in 2017] and he did a wonderful job with the FA.
“Since leaving that FA job behind to come into senior football at Nottingham Forest, it’s been nothing but success all the way. One can only admire that and congratulate him on that success that he’s had.
“Now he’s in Premier League football like the rest of us, I’m sure the early successes with England are just a happy memory.”