Not really sure what to make of England last night. Wembley was rather subdued and so were the team that the fans had come to see. This wasn’t a celebratory finale to the qualifying campaign, the gloss having come off England’s seemingly serene progress to South Africa in the Ukraine on Saturday.
This had the feel of a low-key matinee, with the understudies getting a go in place of the big names. Nobody really made the most of their chance to impress, with the possible exception of Peter Crouch. The tall forward scored twice, displaying the kind of predatory touches in front of goal that seem to come to the fore in international football (his England record is quite remarkable), but you get the sense that Fabio Capello wants a little more physicality from a man of Crouch’s stature. Both his partners this evening would have hoped to have done more as well. Gabriel Agbonlahor is clearly a very talented footballer with blistering pace but whether he has learnt how best to use that attribute, especially at the highest level, is a valid question. He has yet to leave an impression on an international game and may well be left behind as a result. Carlton Cole, though his fierce shot created Crouch’s second, will have to keep scoring for West Ham if he wants to make the cut.
It is terribly difficult – and overly harsh – to attempt to judge Ben Foster on a night like that. He did make one splendid second half save but was mostly fielding backpasses for the rest of the evening. His honest post-match assessment, that his season has been disappointment, is difficult to argue with, particularly when Edwin van der Sar’s injury gave him the opportunity to play himself into Capello’s thoughts. He’s been far from commanding in the United goal and might have slipped down the pecking order as a result.
Though Shaun Wright-Phillips did grab a goal, I was left disappointed with his performance. Yes, he was playing out of position on the left, but time and again he failed to beat his man and deliver a cross. Frustratingly, much of England approach play came down the left, leavin them unable to exploit the potency of Aaron Lennon’s running on the opposite flank. Whether the fact that the Tottenham winger was substituted early for the second game running indicates that he has now done enough to book a ticket to South Africa, remains to be seen.
The decision to give David Beckham the man of the match award (brilliantly compared to President Obama’s Nobel Prize Peace in Capello’s interview awards) must throw into question Steve Bruce’s qualities as a pundit. He was certainly upstaged in the ITV studios by the articulate Owen Hargreaves, though how England wish he could shake off his injury turmoil and take his place on the field as an authentic holding midfielder. Beckham, sporting a ridiculous beard that might have been an attempt to replicate Abraham Lincoln’s magnificent facial hair (though I doubt it), did enliven the crowd but I felt, in an all-too brief cameo, James Milner made more of an impression. His mazy run and shot against the post served as another timely reminder to Capello of his capabilities: the Aston Villa winger must surely be in the squad.
ENGLAND (4-4-2): Foster; Johnson, Bridge (Milner 78), Ferdinand, Terry; Barry, Lampard, Wright-Phillips, Lennon (Beckham 59); Crouch, Agbonlahor (C. Cole 66). Subs (not used): Hart, A. Cole, Upson, Carrick.
GOALS: Crouch (4, 76), Wright-Phillips (59).
BELARUS (4-5-1): Zhevnov, Kulchy, Yurevich, Sosnovskiy, Bordachev (Kashevsky 84), Verkhovtsov, Omelyanchuk, Shitov, Kalachev, Kornilenko (Kovel 77), Kutuzov (Rodionov 45). Subs (not used): Amelchenko, Lantsevich, Rudik, Krivets.
BOOKED: Kornilenko.
REFEREE: Lucilio Cardoso Cortez Batista (Portugal).
ATTENDANCE: 76,897
Admittedly I only caught the highlights of the England game, but I felt it was a rather drab affair. Had they wanted to I think England could have wrapped up the game after Crouch scored early on, but having said that Belarus came back into it late in the first half.
Not a great fan of Crouch mainly because for a man of his height he should be dominant rather than ponderous in the air. He’ll probably go to the finals but would be fairly low down on Capello’s list. At the moment, I’d be looking at picking the likes of Rooney, Heskey, Defoe, Crouch and (if there was room for another striker) Bent. Wright-Phillips is disappointing too often for me and you can’t rely on his final ball.
The failing of recent England sides has been their inability to keep the ball. At least this tournament will be played in the South African winter so the climate won’t be against us, but I still think we could get found out by the better sides.
I would have preferred to see Milner start on the left wing instead of Wright-Phillips personally. He has seemed right at home in every one of his senior international appearences so far, and his performance against the Dutch on the left hand side in particular was excellent, and he seemed fairly comfortable at left-back too against Belarus (although I would have thought that Capello would have put Barry there and played another CM). Unlike Young, he doesn’t seem restrained in his play on the big stage, something which surely is why Young won’t be on the plane to South Africa.
I hope Milner gets his chance on the left in (at least one of) the friendlies before the World Cup. We already have a plethora of options of the right hand side – we need to see who can fill in on the left if Gerrard is injured. Joe Cole would seem the more likely choice, but it seems as if Capello sees Cole more as a back-up for the Rooney role.
Milner’s quality. He simply has to go – he’s got that intelligence that seems rare in English wide players. Plus he works his socks off and frightens full backs. Wish he’d be able to push his way into the first team between now and the first group game but that seems unlikely.