On the morning of an England game we all want to know the same thing.
What’s the team?
But the team has not been named.
The two stories today are Owen and Joe Cole.
It’s believed that Owen will not start. And it’s believed that Joe Cole could be just behind Wayne Rooney.
If those stories are true, I’m not too surprised. As soon as Capello was appointed I said, “Owen will be a sub now.”
As soon as Sir Alex said :” Wayne should stay up the field, not go deep so much, chasing the ball, wasting so much energy,” I thought : Fabio has had a word with Sir Alex.
We’ll never know if Fabio did speak to him about Rooney playing as a centre forward. But why else would Sir Alex say that when he did ?
Incidentally, Rooney once said, “I think of myself as a centre forward.”
But footballers say a lot of daft things.
The team’s last practice match lined up with two Coles and two Ashleys, and without Micah Richards.
If this is the team that starts, it could be an interesting night.
In that training session it was 4-4-1-1: James ; Brown, Ferdinand, Upson, Ashley Cole ; Bentley, Gerrard, Hargreaves, Ashley Young ; Joe Cole, Rooney.
BALANCE is hard to achieve. Sven rarely had a balanced team because he is a groupie.groupie.
If it was me, and I wanted to try out Young and Bentley, I’d play Rooney behind Crouch.
We shall have to wait and see. That might be the team. As well as being strict, charismatic and Italian, Fabio Capello is also cunning.
SWITZERLAND probable : (4-2-3-1) : Benaglio (Wolfsburg); Lichtsteiner (Lille), Eggiman (Karlsruher), Senderos (Arsenal), Spycher (Eintracht Frankfurt); Fernandes (Manchester City), Inler (Udinese); Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen), Gygax (Metz), Yakin (Young Boys); Nkufo (Twente Enschede)