Shock and Draw

It’s only been one game but already it feels like injuries and paucity of options are depriving Capello of the chance to break the ‘English curse’ at the World Cup.

With Ferdinand and King (according to today’s headlines) quickly falling aside and Milner doing a good impression of a man new to his left foot, options for England seem to be limited to a good ‘Plan A’ with less and less flexibility available after that. A topline analysis of the game in Rustenberg reveals deficiencies in attacking support for Rooney, defensive support for Terry, absence of pace in central defence, complete uncertainty over the goalkeeping situation and lack of experience on the wings. But apart from that everything’s ok.

However perhaps the one galling aspect of the disappointing result was the inability of Gerrard and Lampard to stamp their authority on the game. One can always excuse the first game of a WC campaign for being unsure and slow, but having made such an explosive start to the game through the former, the stage was set for England to grab the game by the cojones and leave the Americans trailing. The early promise gave way to anonymity from the experienced pair, with Lampard noticeably absent from any of England’s attacking forays; whether he was taking Ballack’s advice and sacrificing himself for his midfield partner remains to be seen, though one would expect to find a resurgent ‘Lamps’ back in the thick of the action against Algeria on Friday whether it is form or tactics hindering him at present.

For my money, England’s problems started almost as soon as any attack was being assembled. Too often the ball was sprayed out wide from the central defensive pairing, bringing the wide men into the action too soon and too far away from goal. Both Wright-Phillips and Lennon operate well with the ball played in front of them, relishing the opportunity to run at and embarrass defenders, but this strength was diminished by the distance they were asked to cover before any attempted cut-back to a team-mate. Whether this problem was due to or the cause of the central midfield deficiencies is open to debate, but I would suggest the lack of disciplined holding midfielder may have influenced the strategy of trying to bring the ‘width & pace’ option in too soon.

The final doom and gloom moment was watching big Crouchy being lumped on up front to have the ball bounce off his head for the last portion of the match; I cannot believe that in two years this is the best ‘Plan B’ that Capello has come up with, surely it must have been due to the host of injuries!? Alternative theories do not bear contemplation.

Onwards and upwards - to take the incredibly optimistic view, the 3 Lions are cleverly getting injuries, defensive blunders and typical English insecurities out of the way early doors thereby allowing characters such as Jamie C, Robbie G et al. to be in perfect fettle for the real challenges presented in the latter stages. Perhaps we should unleash Dawson, Cole, Defoe and even let Jamo out of his mental straightjacket against the Algerians to get the bugs out of their systems nice and early?

- Prince of Castilla