: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:36 am
I think Capello obviously felt that the midfield who performed so admirably in Germany, and took the plaudits, deserved another go last night, and maybe he's right. What message do you send out to the likes of Downing if he has his best game for England and then sits his booty back on the bench again for the next friendly.
I understand there's a temptation to try things, but he must feel that he's trying to build a squad, or a nucleus of a squad of 24/25 with the World Cup in mind, he can't just take a quick snapshot and think "I've seen enough", he'll want to see how each individual performs in various scenarios, different circumstances before he puts a big tick against them like. Barry for one, he's and England player now, looks the part, possibly could be Barry+1 in Englands midfield ? Ref, Downing, he had a good game in Germany, Capello will have been keen to see him back that up last night, but he didn't really. Maybe he'll get another chance too. You'd like to think then, Capello will give A.Young two or three games, to see him put his claims forward. The annoying thing with Downing is that England are screaming out for that balance which he could provide, but doesn't.
I thought at the time, Crouch was a waste of a substitution. Actually, on subs, I think that's the first time I've seen Capello do that, treat it as a friendly, make wholesale changes, normally he brings Joe Cole on with 90 secs left to run down the clock like.
Capello will have got what he wantedo out of last night, are England going the right way ? Yes, for sure. Compared to some of the lacklustre friendlies that Sven & McLaren served up it was okay, we looked to keep the ball pretty well at times, something everyone has moaned about for years, there's less kick & rush. Can a second string England team beat the European Champions ? No. So, he'll know that against decent opposition, like Germany, it's fine to not play his strongest team, for England to beat the best, we have to have Rio stopping Villa, Gerrard driving at defenders & Rooney running at Pique.