By Myles Palmer
Why is my interest in England only 30% of what it was before the World Cup?
Because we went out with a whimper and I stopped believing in Sven.
I can’t get behind a long-ball team with two quarterbacks,Beckham and Gerrard, slamming 50-yard passes up to opposing defenders.
If England are not gonna try to play football, I’m not interested.
That’s why I’ve been dreading this fixture for so long.
I’m glad the game has come round at last, but I’m not expecting much.
I’ve been building down to this for nine months.
If Turkey had played England in the World Cup they would have beaten us. I’m sure of that.
If they had played us with Steven Gerrard fit they would still have beaten us. I’m fairly sure of that.
Does playing in Sunderland give England a huge advantage?
Not really.
The Under 21 game?
The Turks were lively and inventive and made more chances in a 1-1 draw.
Jeffers scored a decent equaliser but missed a great chance to grab the winner in 88 minutes.
Accepting his Man of the Match award, Jeffers looked gutted,sounded gutted, was gutted.
He had missed a volley from 11 yards, a chance that would have given David Platt’s wannabes an undeserved victory.
Expect a clash of styles tonight.
Turkey play a short-passing game.They run towards the ball,while we run away from the ball.
We have been doing that for centuries.
As a reporter who saw virtually every England game at Wembley since 1982, missing only four games, I got used to our players sprinting away from the ball, as if it was radioactive.
We don’t like to pass to the feet of marked men.We don’t like to pass to players facing us.
For decades somebody would get the ball, look up and see four white shirts disappearing into the distance.
England did that under Taylor and then stopped it under Venables and Hoddle and then reverted to type under Keegan.
Then we hired Mr Sophisticated, the Swede from Rome, and England carried on booting the ball up to Heskey and Owen.
OK, it worked perfectly in Munich when England won 5-1.
But England will never be that good again and Germany will never be that bad again.
So the 5-1 was meaningless and unrepeatable.
It was just a night when everything worked. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Should Sven play 4-3-3? Should he start Wayne Rooney?
Since England’s best bet is to win a tight game on a set-piece,I’d say No and No.
Better to pack midfield and bring Rooney on if the game allows.
Rooney’s gifts are obvious, that’s why he has skipped the Under-21s.
Talentwise, Rooney is a freak.
Rooney can see like Beardsley, shoot like Shearer, occupy spaces like Sheringham. He has vision, power, touch, an instinctive knack of knowing when to hold it and when to pass and when to shoot.
You cannot teach that. Players are born with it. Footballers are made by their mums and dads.
Sure, Rooney has immature moments, but so do 28-year olds with half his technique.
Over the next five years Rooney can become an Anglo-Saxon Kenny Dalglish, a half-striker who can think and invent the game from moment to moment in the last third.
Obviously, the tabloid-led public want a fairy story tonight.
They want wonderboy Wayne to come on and blast in a goal and win the game for us.
Good as he is,exciting as he is, much as I love him, that won’t happen tonight.
I doubt if Sven will let the crowd pick his team. If England are losing, he won’t throw the boy into the meat grinder.
Turkey have not played for seven months, so they can only be 70% of what they were in the World Cup.
Many Turkish players have had poor seasons with their clubs.
Gooners will want to see Rustu, who is 29 and has been Turkey’s keeper for 10 years.
Rustu is big and brave and athletic and catches confidently. He is better than Marcos or Kahn.
Maybe 70% of Turkey is good enough to draw in England.
And Rooney?
Time is on Rooney’s side, even if it’s not on Sven’s.
The future is Rooney, Jenas, Robinson and the play-offs.
And the play-offs are full of ropey teams.
So we should get to Euro 2004.
But don’t expect too much tonight.
Spend two hours building down to it and you’ll be fine.
April 2nd 2003.