If England needed pointers on how to win then they needed look no further than their cricketing counterparts and adopted ‘Englishman’ and Wimbledon hopeful Andy Murray yesterday.
England’s one day side beat Australia by four wickets and Murray eased through his first round match against Jan Hajek. For English (ok, British) sport Tuesday 22nd June 2010 was a good day.
Wednesday 23rd June is Judgement Day for the national football side, their World Cup hopes hanging on victory against Slovenia. We all know the Slovenians are the sort of team England should be beating easily but Fabio Capello’s men have been unbelievably poor so far in South Africa and we’re all on edge about today’s match.
We all have our opinions on which team should be selected, what we expect from the players in terms of commitment and, no doubt, what the eventual result will be. Only one opinion matters, though, and it’s that of Capello.
Despite growing calls for him to unleash Joe Cole, reports suggest James Milner will be recalled, apparently on the right wing, and Jermaine Defoe will accompany Wayne Rooney up front, the coach abandoning his tried and tested big man / little man partnership.
I’m hard pressed to work out how that line up will take to the field so, for perhaps the last time, I’m going to put my faith in the fact Capello knows what he’s doing. God knows, that faith has been tested lately but this is his – and the players’ – chance for redemption, in my eyes and those of the nation.
I’m actually slightly impressed by the fact that Capello seems to have resisted mounting media pressure on who to pick and remains his own man. That, at least, is refreshing from an England coach.
For what it’s worth, this is the team I would have picked:
James
Johnson Upson Terry A. Cole
Lennon Gerrard Barry J. Cole
Rooney Crouch
Either that or replace Crouch with Lampard and push Gerrard further forward. It would – and will – all mean nothing, however, if theplayers don’t go out with confidence. That’s down to them.
England expects, lads. It’s time to restore our faith – and your own reputations.
