HE is a realistic Canadian-born lad who has grown up in the Bundesliga.
The only England player who has never played for an English club or lived in England.
He’s an anchorman, an insurance man, a holding midfielder who allows others to make headlines.
His career has been, thankfully, outside the Sky-hyped fishbowl of the Premiership, where so many household names lack the basic crafts of the game.
Yes, England are always better with Owen Hargreaves in the team.
So we will win. England have not won in their last four games but they will win today because Israel are not as good as Croatia or Spain
Clearly, it would be easier if we had Joe Cole, Ashley Cole and Gary Neville, but Rooney, Gerrard, Terry and Andy Johnson can all score.
Sure, it’s the biggest game of Andy Johnson’s life. And international football needs a lot of concentration. But I’d argue that AJ’s game is based as much on concentration as it is on pace. And he is more skilful than Michael Owen. He is definitely good enough.
However, I won’t bet on it because I’d never feel comfortable betting on an England team coached by someone as uninspiring as Steve McClaren. He sounds like a plank. And with Terry Venables as his assistant, any game can be a draw, because the suspicious Tel is always calculating how to nullify threats that barely exist.
Tel will never say : stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage, go for it !! Tel is not a once-more-unto-the-breach type of guy. He doesn’t have balls. But Rooney does, Stevie G does and JT does – and Andy Johnson and Aaron Lennon have pace.
England should be too fast and powerful for Israel. They should start at 150 mph and blow them away.They should press and play the game in Israel’s half and use the blistering pace of Wayne, Stevie, Aaron and AJ to pin the Israelis back and take the ball off them, force mistakes, force them to pass the ball sideways or back, or kick it long to Rio Ferdinand. Just go for it and scare the crowd and shut the crowd up. Because when you’ve done that, you’ve already done two thirds of the job. There’s no reason why England cannot score from their first set-piece. So don’t hesitate ! If you don’t have the ball, go after it in packs and win it back and score. You’re not playing Argentina today! You’re not playing France! Or Portugal !
Wayne Rooney is hot right now. If you give him three chances, he’ll score two goals. And if Rooney gives AJ three chances, he’ll score one.
It’s simple : it’s a serious game today and we need the points and they need the points and we have to win and we will beat Israel, and beat Andorra, six points – next !
This game should be over at half-time !
And if England play careful football and draw, we might as we’ll cancel our Sky subscriptions and give up. Because we’ve all been conned.
ENGLAND v ITALY ?
I’m reliably informed that Nigel Pearson is a damn good coach, so maybe his Under-21s can beat Italy in the first match at Wembley, which kicks off at 12.30.