Hodgson pointed to the ever-present quality of the opposition, not just this afternoon against Fulham but in a Premier League where the quality is higher than ever.
“That is the way the Premier League is going: every team we play now seems so well organised,” he said. “The quality improves every year, as we saw by the bench of Fulham and the players they were able to bring on, which we are a bit limited by at the moment by the injury situation.
“It is no longer the case as it used to be…if you’re organised and you know what you need to do you and know your patterns of play, you will catch teams out. You don’t.
“You have to be on your guard. The onus is on us to attack, and that is where the danger lies. If you do attack and you switch off your defensive duties, the opposition team punishes you – as we saw when they had their two best chances in the second-half.”
Hodgson now faces the prospect of two trips to Old Trafford in five days, first in the League Cup and then in the Premier League.
“We don’t have many players at the moment, that’s the problem,” said he manager. “In defence we have options, which is good, but when you move forwards into midfield and up-front, and especially if Odsonne Edouard’s hamstring is a problem, we don’t have options that would give me a choice to give some players a rest and maybe see some other players.
“We’ll do our best, we’ll be as organised as we were today and hopefully some of the players who get a chance to play will show me: ‘We’re better than you think.’”