England World Cup Build up

[billycopper]

Our preparations for the World Cup finals have seemed very haphazard. I couldn't tell you what Capello has learned from the two games. Personally, I'd have done things differently.

v Mexico
I would have used this game to audition the fringe players. I would have started like this:

_________________Hart
______Carragher King Dawson Warnock
Wright-Phillips Huddlestone Carrick A. Johnson
______________Crouch Defoe

It would have given us an opportunity to see how the Tottenham partnerships of King-Dawson and Crouch-Defoe would work at international level. Having so many of their club mates around them would help to ease Dawson and Huddlestone into the England fold too.

I would introduce James, Upson, Baines, Parker and Heskey as the game goes on. I would also replace Defoe with Rooney with about 20 minutes to go, to look at their partnership. The finishing XI would then be:

_______________James
___Carragher Dawson Upson Baines
Wright-Phillips Parker Carrick A. Johnson
____________Heskey Rooney

That would give Carragher, Wright-Phillips and Carrick a full 90 minutes to become reaccustomed to the international game. It would also give Johnson an entire match to prove his value. Switching Wright-Phillips and Johnson would also be a useful experiment.

v Japan
I would use this game to tinker with the final lineup. My starting side would be:

______________Green
_G.Johnson Ferdinand Terry A. Cole
______________Parker
___Milner Gerrard Lampard J. Cole
_____________Rooney

Parker holding would allow Gerrard and Lampard to play with freedom. Milner and Joe Cole tucking in, would offer protection for Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole, should they get forward.

I would try out Bent as a lone striker, to give us an option should we lose Rooney during the tournament. I would also try Carragher at centreback, King in the holding role and Walcott in the problem left-side position. My final change would be to move Milner inside to gauge his potential to cover for Lampard or Gerrard, with Lennon replacing him on the wing. They would lineup like this:

______________Green
G. Johnson Carragher Terry A. Cole
_______________King
__Lennon Milner Lampard Walcott
_______________Bent

Everyone in the party would have played atleast 45 minutes and we will have answered several key questions.

 

[ijjysmith]

The fact is capello still has no idea what his strongest 11 is... And he has no more time. Could be embaressing. Every other big nation you could pretty much name their line ups. Us?! Nope no idea.

 

[billycopper]

It is strange. You'd think that Warnock was in the 30 man party because Capello has reservations about Baines. Why not give him a run out then to see if he performs any better? Capello wasn't going to learn anything by playing Ashley Cole for 90 minutes today.

You would expect that the teams who do well in this tournament will know each others games inside out and will be settled on a system of playing. It's very difficult to still be finding those things out in the group stages. It happened for Robson that way in 90, but 9 times out of 10, you end up getting found out at the highest level, if you try to muddle through.

 

[Toffees_USA]

so, does that mean capello is set with baines? he didnt let him play, which hopefully means he's in.

 

[Bigloco]

v Japan
I would use this game to tinker with the final lineup. My starting side would be:

______________Green
_G.Johnson Ferdinand Terry A. Cole
______________Parker
___Milner Gerrard Lampard J. Cole
_____________Rooney

Parker holding would allow Gerrard and Lampard to play with freedom. Milner and Joe Cole tucking in, would offer protection for Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole, should they get forward.

I would try out Bent as a lone striker, to give us an option should we lose Rooney during the tournament. I would also try Carragher at centreback, King in the holding role and Walcott in the problem left-side position. My final change would be to move Milner inside to gauge his potential to cover for Lampard or Gerrard, with Lennon replacing him on the wing. They would lineup like this:

______________Green
G. Johnson Carragher Terry A. Cole
_______________King
__Lennon Milner Lampard Walcott
_______________Bent

Everyone in the party would have played atleast 45 minutes and we will have answered several key questions.

I have to think Crouch fits in there somewhere? If Capello was really wanting to put on a good show today, surely he'd have Crouch in there vs. the Japanese...Maybe I overestimate his ability...I'm closer to being a ballet dancer than I am a football coach.

 

[billycopper]

so, does that mean capello is set with baines? he didnt let him play, which hopefully means he's in.

It would seem that, with Warnock having not featured in either of the warm up games, that he won't make the cut. That would mean that Baines is in.

 

[billycopper]

I have to think Crouch fits in there somewhere? If Capello was really wanting to put on a good show today, surely he'd have Crouch in there vs. the Japanese...Maybe I overestimate his ability...I'm closer to being a ballet dancer than I am a football coach.

The problem with starting with Crouch is that we may become over-reliant on his height and end up hitting long balls rather than building the play through the midfield. I would expect him generally to be used as an impact player. If Capello decides to go 4-4-2, then it probably will be either Crouch or Heskey alongside Rooney. I'd stick with 4-1-4-1 myself though.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

And Capello is the best manager in the world who is gonna win us the world cup!

 

[Dublintoff]

Englands best line up for me would be:

JAMES( i actually think hart is the best of the 3 of them but wont get in)

Johnson
Cole
Ferdinand
Terry

Lennon
Lampard
Gerrard
Milner

Crouch
Rooney

Crouch will cause havoc against the lesser lights(especially against algeria who didnt deal very well with doyle when we played them). In the knockout stages maybe bring in Joe Cole to float about behind rooney and drop in to midfield when england havent got the ball.