England national soccer team coach Roy Hodgson in 2012. Photo: Wikipedia.

Reporters inquiring as to the state of English soccer found themselves on the receiving end of a few disarmingly self-reflective responses from national soccer team coach Roy Hodgson Tuesday, following his four-hour visit to Israelis Holocaust monument Yad Vashem.

“Who knows if there’s a crisis? What is a crisis? They are the big philosophical questions,” the England manager was quoted as saying.

“When do you have to question things in your life? Is it when your team loses a football game? Is it when you can’t pay your mortgage? Is it when you suffer a death in the family?

“We are going down maybe too philosophical a route. I found today particularly depressing.

“Maybe I am in a more sensitive mood than otherwise. I thought the whole experience very sobering, especially the Children’s memorial.”

Hodgson has come under criticism as England’s under-21 team has struggled during the UEFA under-21 championship currently taking place in Israel, as too has the team he directs, England’s senior squad, struggled to qualify for next year’s World Cup.

Hodgson was accompanied on his visit to the memorial by British FA general secretary Alex Horne and chairman David Bernstein.

“It was very emotional for me as I come from a Jewish family in London and was born in 1943 so the holocaust has stayed with me for every day of my life,” Bernstein was quoted as saying.