England 2 Slovenia 1
ENGLAND: Green (West Ham), Johnson (Liverpool), Upson (West Ham) (Lescott (Manchester City, 66min), Terry (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) (Lennon (Tottenham), h-t), Lampard (Chelsea) (Carrick (Manchester Utd), h-t), Barry (Manchester City), Gerrard (Liverpool) )Milner (Aston Villa, h-t), Rooney (Manchester Utd) (C Cole (West Ham, 80min), Heskey (Aston Villa) (Defoe (Tottenham, h-t)
So here we are in the midst of a duo of fixtures that should be the reaffirmation of England’s credentials as a potential football force. With the friendly against Slovenia done and dusted with a 2-1 victory, we go into Wednesday’s match knowing that victory will see us qualify for South Africa 2010. Our closest rivals in the group, Croatia and Ukraine can potentially finish on 23 points. With 3 games to play England on 21 points need 3 points from 3 games to qualify for the World Cup. Such a luxury in a World Cup qualifying group has not been seen in most people’s lifetime.
What Saturday’s game threw up in very stark terms was England’s fragility and perhaps a sense of a false dawn. There are warning signs aplenty. Already the hype is beginning. Expressions such as “Wednesday’s vital World Cup qualifier”, coupled with talk of winning the World Cup should be recognised as hype. Wednesday’s game is not vital, we can afford to lose it, and Saturday’s game against Slovenia highlighted some flaws in the renaissance England under the Italian art collector manager’s regime. We have reached in many ways a crossroads. To ignore the success of Capello’s regime would be frivolous. Without doubt we have achieved much in our qualifying group and to be in the position we are in is testimony to that. The challenge is can we take it to another level?
Capello’s squad for these fixtures shows us the players in contention for places for a potential World Cup Squad. Not in the squad for reasons of short term or long term injury, lack of form and need to prove oneself include David James, Joe Cole, Owen Hargreaves, Stewart Downing, Gabriel Agbonlahor. Theo Walcott, Rio Ferdinand and Micah Richards,. Add in Jonathan Woodgate, Ledley King and Michael Owen and competition for places certainly exists. At international level you can only go with what you have available. Of course a manger would like all his players available and in “a good moment of form”, but this is almost nigh impossible to achieve. The best a manager can do is manage his available forces in the most effective manner. This usually boils down to a known and comfortable system that can utilise the available players. To some extent Capello has achieved this.
Capello’s squad did not include Michael Owen. Nor should it have done. A good pre season and substitute appearances for his new club, does not mean you should be in contention for a place. Consistency and a rich deep vein of form is what is needed. It is going to be difficult for Michael to break into the squad especially as Jermaine Defoe is getting all the plaudits at the moment. From an England supporters point of view though, to have the finished article in terms of experience and without doubt World class credentials and with an obvious hunger, set on trying to break into the squad can only be a good thing. Owen has been there and done that. He really has. When the pressure is on, Owen can deliver. To have this player trying to prove his worth to an ambivalent manager is a healthy situation. Can Owen make it? Time is against him, but we will see if quality can win though, or are we just being nostalgic. It will be interesting.
So the team that Capello picked for the friendly against Slovenia was we are led to believe the team that will start against Croatia on Wednesday. The team won the game courtesy of a very dubious first half penalty and a second half strike by Defoe scoring an opportunist goal, fed by his Spurs team mate Lennon, both on in the substitutions that characterises friendlies. As a game, it was quite open. All credit to Slovenia, playing a classic 4-4-2 formation. They tried to play football, which allowed England, also to try and play football. The Slovenia midfield endeavored to play and feed the attackers with some success. It was a relaxed affair all in all. Hustle and bustle, rare glimpses of fluency and the obvious spectacle of a well organised workmanlike team with aspirations of progress in their group against an England team who posses the greater class but the gap was not that evident. In many ways the match was reminiscent of Sven’s reign. The result was a win albeit unconvincing and let’s put it in perspective it was just a warm up match.
That such an inconsequential match could throw up problems with the team perhaps is the real worth of the match. Robert Green the heir apparent for the England goalkeeping jersey performed adequately. Green’s experience must be called into question.. He has no European experience and has yet to perform in a really vital match. His experience is the premiership only. Good goalkeeper he is, but could he perform in a vital knock out match in the tournament? He will not have the benefit of Champions league football to hone his competivity. The same with Matty Upson, though he has been a consistent performer for England. Understudy to Ferdinand and Terry, it is good the experience he is accumulating, but again, in the heat of really stiff competition will he come through? The same with the other understudy Lescott who was at fault for the Slovenia goal. It is essential that we have Terry, Ferdinand and Upson fit for 2010.
Glen Johnson is a good fullback. The question mark with Johnson though is does his attacking instincts compromise his defensive attributes? The Slovenia goal was also attributable to Johnson’s defending when attacked. He just did not have the unspectacular capability to hold the Slovenia winger up. This is a fragility that we know exists and was highlighted. Ashley Cole played well and has the ability to defend whilst adding an attacking option. Johnson needs to learn from Cole. To stifle Johnson’s attacking instincts would be wrong, but the art of defending needs to be instilled in the player.
The midfield. Where do we start? This is where we have really gone back to the future. We are in Sven territory. OK, Joe Cole is not available and the manager has to do the best with available resources. Gerrard on the left is not the answer. The manager has to sort out the central midfield and he has to decide on a left sided player. Milner would seem to be the choice in the absence of Joe Cole. He is solid, two footed, possesses a footballing brain and can muster some quality and turn of skill. Indeed he is a very underrated player. There really has to be the choice of Lampard or Gerrard in central midfield. Barry or Carrick as the holding player. On the right, Walcott first choice with Wright Phillips or Lennon competing for the position in his absence.
Up front it might be time to turn to Carlton Cole. There is a lot of unfulfilled potential with Cole. Maybe he can step up a notch? The problem is as with all the West Ham contingency, they will have no champions league experience and as such in the cut and thrust of the final stages of the World Cup lack the experience and “bottle” needed.
So we move into Wednesdays game understanding our shortcomings. It would be great to keep our 100% qualifying record in tact and thus qualify for the World Cup. One thing is for sure, the team that played on Saturday would not win a World Cup. Let’s get the qualifiers over with and then go back to the drawing board. Keep the good parts, which there are many, but bring in some freshness and recapture the spirit that we displayed in Croatia last September. We need to hope that all the players in contention for a World Cup place are fit, well and good in form next May and that Fabio has developed a strategy and worked out a balanced team. The danger is that we are accommodating the midfield rather than sorting it out. The key to England is sorting out the left side of midfield effectively. Until this is done we will struggle against top class opposition. Wily opposing managers will target it as they will a right back that will leave space.
Let’s see what Wednesday brings us. Victory would be great, though not vital. Nonetheless the sooner we can consign the qualifying group as a done job the better. What is for sure is that we need to move up another level if we are to compete with very best. Croatia will be a good test, but do not get carried away whatever happens.
