Right now England is a power team with improving habits and a decent shape.
Our main characteristic is speed: Vardy, Rashford, Raheem, Lingard and Walker are all fast footballers. Kane and Alli are fast as well, as is their mate Danny Rose.
We qualified while Holland and Italy didn’t.
That’s right, the Italians did not qualify for this World Cup.
England’s main flaw is a lack of a midfield playmaker. We have is no Hoddle or Gascoigne or Bobby Charlton. And don’t even have a Paul Merson because Adam Lallana has been injured,
Lallana is a two-footed creator can play inside the box as well as in centrefield or on the flank.
Right now, more than at any time in our football history, we are a nation of journeymen, captained by the reliable Jordan Henderson, a yeoman who plays for Liverpool.
But it could be worse because Italian football has been in decline for a long time.
Napoli only won one Champions League group game. The once-mighty AC Milan were thrashed by a mediocre Arsenal side in the Europa League.
We are told that Claudio Ranieri, Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini are candidates to take over the national team. But so is Antonio Conte, who will not be at Chelsea for much longer. Conte is inspirational and did well in the role first time round.
Their manager is Luigi Di Biaggio, who was previously Italy’s the Under 21 coach.
Captain Leonardo Bonucci, who joined Milan from Juventus last year, is realistic about their prospects tonight.
Bonucci says, “We all need to understand Italy starts – not from zero, but not very far from zero We need to let these young players grow and hopefully they’ll take us back to the Italy we’re used to. England have managed to go through transition while still qualifying. England have a group of young players with lots of experience. Our young players don’t have that experience. You can’t compare our younger players to the English ones.”
Looking back, I can now see that Italy were already in decline when they beat us 2-1 in Manaus.
Our best player in the last World Cup was our youngest, Raheem Sterling, who has learned a lot since joining Manchester City.
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