NOISES from Cesc Fabregas and Stevie G suggest they think it’s a Premiership game between their clubs.
England being more physical, Spain playing keep-ball.
Two things are interesting about the game : midfield balance and goalkeepers.
If Spain play Xavi-Fabregas then their midfield balance will not be any better than England’s was with Lampard and Gerrard.
But now England propose to play Carrick in a Guardiola role, flanked by Lamps and Stevie G.
And Spain may play Fabregas-Xavi-Xabi Alonso
For me England tonight is looking like the Steve Venables Xmas tree.
Oddly enough, I first encountered the Xmas tree in a car park at Brentford in 1996, when England’s Under 21s had beaten Denmark the night before Le Saux and Anderton made their debuts at Wembley in the senior game.
Jamie Redknapp hit a diagonal ball forward, Chris Sutton flicked it on, and Trevor Sinclair was on it in a flash and smashed it into the net on the run. I remember that because it was good goal and the only goal of the game.
The Under-21s had a decent side with Ray Parlour, Nicky Barmby, and a chunky, zippy lad from Leicester whose name escapes me right now. Joachim.
So afterwards Nigel Bidmead, Joe Bernstein and I were talking to Sinclair and he mentioned “the system” and we asked him what the system was and he said, “I don’t know if I should say” and we pressed him and he said it was 4-3-2-1.
THIS WAS the Xmas tree.
A clever Venables plan which led to lots of dull draws and to Switzerland running rings round us in Euro 96 as Tel’s half-fit Three Lions heroes huffed and puffed through 90 minutes to squeeze a draw with the Swiss, with Tel making defensive substitutions all through the second half.
A tactical genius?
Not really !
But Tel’s groupie-hacks loved him.
Tonight against Spain is the same deal : Kieron Dyer and Shaun Wright-Phillips making zippy runs behind Peter Crouch. If Crouch can play those two in, the Xmas tree might blossom at last. It might work.
But don’t hold your breath.
Clearly, Steve McClaren is not his own man. If he was, he would not need Terry Venables.
So I don’t really fancy England to win in Israel next month. And I have serious doubts about whether they will beat Spain, even though Ramos is a novice and Puyol is an ageing warrior who has lost pace in the last two years.
BEN FOSTER is 22 and the great white hope. He could become the Manchester United goalkeeper and if he does that he could become good enough to win as many caps as Ray Clemence or David Seaman.
There are very few keepers who are great when they are 22 but Iker Casillas was one who was close.
Now 26, he was Spain’s keeper in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
Casillas is big and athletic and seems a natural keeper, a bit like Dave Seaman seemed to be at QPR and for Arsenal up to 1996.
The biggest difference between Ben Foster and Casillas is that Foster plays for Watford and Casillas plays for Real Madrid, so Casillas is accustomed to pressure in every game.
We shall see at 8 pm tonight. If Foster looks the part at Old Trafford he could become a world class player.
England need five world class players in their team. They don’t need players who might be world class players two years from now, or who were world class three years ago.
We need a nucleus of genuine quality now. And I don’t think it’s there. I never did. I knew we would do nothing in the World Cup and Sven proved me right. McClaren continues to do the same.
Without a good manager, we have no chance. When will we have a good manager? When we have a good FA.
And, alas, that won’t happen in my lifetime.