What a relief !
It’s going to be 4-4-2 against Macedonia and England will knock the ball around.That’s good because what’s won Steve McClaren’s first three games. Knocking the ball around and using Peter Crouch.
With Andy Johnson fit, England could have played Rooney and AJ and that would have been something new and exciting. Andy Johnson is zippy, hungry, tireless.He knows where to run, when to run, how to stay onside. He will suit Rooney, and, I think, Lampard. AJ deserves his chance and I hope he gets it and takes it.
This game is no walkover. Macedonia are good enough to give England a close game ; Lazio half-striker Pandev is a proven goalscorer at this level.
Coach Srecko Katanec is a Slovenian who, as a Sampdoria player, was a bit like Michael Carrick is now, but better.He was a classy holding player, quite tough, very technical, with a good range of passes. He played against top quality opposition, so I don’t think he will be over-awed by the skills of the England players.
But Katanec will be a bit worried about the power of Gerrard and Rooney, the way England knock the ball around, the deft way Crouch lays the ball off, the way Rooney can give a good pass to Frank Lampard. You can talk all week long about Wayne Rooney being off-form but, on-form or off-form, he will give you a ball that wants hitting. And if he gives Frank a ball that wants hitting, you know what will happen. Stevie G, the same.
England will win 1-0 or 3-1.And I think Rooney will show the 71,000 crowd some of what they expect. Part of the problem is that too much is expected of Rooney. Another part, I’m sure, is that Rooney himself has very, very high expectations of what his performance should be. If he lowered his expectations a little bit, he might be OK
A win will put them in good shape for Croatia on Wednesday night, as long as they don’t get any serious injuries.
FRANCE have doubts about the fitness of Gallas, skipper Vieira, and Saha, so they’ve called up Squillaci (Lyon centreback) and Anelka.
Scotland have found form under manager Walter Smith but I can’t see them beating France at Hampden
We’ve been told that Thierry Henry and Franck Ribery are big mates these days, and that the 29-year old is looking after the 23-year old, encouraging him a lot.
Apparently, Ribery wants to join Arsenal next summer.That would be a wise move. With his spark and drive, Arsenal could win that long-coveted European Cup.
At 1.20 pm, my son Michael just got up.
It was his birthday yesterday and he went to Fabric, a London club, with seven friends
“Pendulum live were awesome!” he said.
“There’s always a lot of people in the DJ booth.And when the DJ said : Are you ready for Pendulum live? We all turned round and three of them came onstage and it was sheer pandemonium. Just bedlam, people bouncing off the walls. It was an amazing night out. But I’m getting too old for it now. It was a very young crowd, half the people there were under 18.”
Pendulum are a drum and bass outfit whose drummer Paul is one of my gym pals.
Two weeks ago I got into the jacuzzi and found I was next to Paul, who was telling me all about the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
Paul said Pendulum were doing a DJ gig, followed by an unannounced live set last night, so I told Michael, who has some of their records.He was planning to go to Fabric anyway last night, as it was his 24th.
Funnily enough, Paul is a Gooner who told me that his grandfather used to watch Arsenal play in Woolwich, pre-1913 !