Relax, I’ve picked the England team.
We now have a half-striker.
England are always useless without a half-striker.
In Mexico in 1986 we played 4-4-2 with Lineker and Hateley and we were pedestrian, predictable, clueless, could not keep the ball. Then, suddenly, with Beardsley, Peter Reid and Trevor Steven, we were playing well. We had a mix, a balance, with men running towards the ball as well as running away from it.
My England team is 4-4-1-1 and we’ll beat the USA in our first game with this eleven:
Joe Hart ; Glen Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole; Lennon, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard; Joe Cole ; Rooney.
All warm-up games are phoney : halfway between a friendly game and a training game.
First half, England had no shape or fluency. Why? Seven changes from the Mexico game on Monday.
At half-time England were 1-0 down, centreback Tulio Tanaka having stabbed in a low corner kick when Glen Johnson reacted too slowly in seven minutes.
Second half, England had a bit of shape and rhythm after Capello made five changes at half-time.
They improved and won the second half with two own-goals after Lampard missed a penalty. Lampard took a free-kick and the charging defender blocked with his arm, then another defender put his arm above his head to block the deflection.
But Lampard scuffed the penalty. The keeper dived to his right and saved.
In 72, Joe Cole whipped a cross in to the near post and centreback Tulio Tanaka dived to head it past the post but headed into the net for 1-1.
When Ashley Cole crossed from the left in 82, Nakazawa thew his leg at the ball and it went in for a second o.g.
With Shaun Wright-Phillips on the left, Lennon switched to the right, Joe Cole playing behind Rooney in the position Capello thinks is his best role, and Gerrard replacing Huddlestone in midfield, England looked something like a team.
After such a rubbish first half, they needed to improve a lot and they did.
Capello has already decided to take Heskey, who came on and missed a diving header from a killer cross by Stevie G.
VERDICT : Joe Cole has to start.
He can play left or right or in the hole. He is one of our best footballers. He can see a pass. He can play with Rooney. So can SWP and Lennon. Joe and Shaun are tenacious and can improvise. In international football, you need to be able to play on your own.
Walcott is an embarrassment. He can\’t play with anybody. He should not be there. Rooney loves footballers, so he would never say anything, but I think Rooney has given up on Walcott.
Bottom line, England are nothing without Rooney. But Rooney is powerless if he has nobody who can play with him.
Huddlestone is a carthorse.
DISCOVERY : Joe Cole is the new Peter Beardsley.
He can get it, link the play, dribble when no pass is on, hold the ball when you\’re 1-0 up. Also, like SWP, he can win the ball back. Those two have craft. They can make a one-dimensional team look decent and give us a run for our money, four or five games.
Joe Cole is out of contract and wants a move to Manchester United?
If Joe plays behind Rooney and makes him look good in this World Cup, Joe could be on £120,000 a week for the next four years.
Over to you, Fabio.
Start keeping clean sheets.
Start scoring first in a game.
Beat the USA and take it from there. C’mon, England !!
ENGLAND (4-4-2): James (Portsmouth); Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Terry (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea); Walcott (Arsenal), Huddlestone (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham); Rooney (Manchester United), Bent (Sunderland).
Subs used: Hart (Manchester City) for James; Carragher (Liverpool) for Glen Johnson; Gerrard (Liverpool) for Huddlestone; Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) for Walcott; Joe Cole (Chelsea) for Bent, all h-t; Heskey (Aston Villa) for Lennon, 76.
JAPAN (4-1-4-1): Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale): Konno (Tokyo), Nakazawa (Yokohama F Marinos), Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus), Nagatomo (Tokyo); Abe (Urawa Red Diamonds); Honda (CSKA Moscow), Hasebe (Wolfsburg), Endo (Gamba Osaka), Okubo (Vissel Kobe); Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse).
Subs used: Morimoto (Catania) for Okazaki, 64; Matsui (Grenoble) for Okubo, 71; Tamada (Nagoya Grampus) for Endo, 85.