Brian Cook Presents

In the past few days, no topic has been receiving as much attention as this the England vs Russia Euro 2008 qualifying match on Football365, my soccer news source of choice. Everyone has been writing into the site’s famous mailbox with their two cents on England’s likely tactics, best team selection and chances of winning.

Much of tactical and selection talk has been informed and considered, though there’s always plenty to disagree with. My own view is that England should play a more ambitious, open game to try and put their opponents on the back foot. The match is at Wembley, after all, and the Three Lions are far more effective when given license to attack, not to mention far more pleasing on the eye. The attacking talents of Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Philips would be better served if unleashed instead of marginalized by a cautious, cagey approach.

As for the Starting XI, I’m an advocate of form dictating the team slightly more than class. Over a week-in-week-out league season, class certainly tells. In the periodic schedule of qualifying, however, the form and confidence of players doing well count for far more than the superior technique of a player in a rut. This is especially true of England, where the best balm for the crippling expectations of the press is the confidence of on-form players. Unfortunately, English pundits and fans alike treat international caps as a holy grail, only to be bestowed on players who perform at a consistently high level for years at a top-tier club. My pick for 11 starters and 7 substitutes is:

• GK: David James
• RB: Micah Richards
• CB: John Terry
• CB: Rio Ferdinand
• LB: Ashley Cole
• RM: Shaun Wright-Philips
• CM: Steven Gerrard
• CM: Gareth Barry
• LM: Joe Cole
• CF: Michael Owen
• CF: Emile Heskey

• SB: Paul Robinson
• SB: Michael Kightly
• SB: Matt Derbyshire
• SB: Phil Neville
• SB: Gabriel Agbonlahor
• SB: Sol Campbell
• SB: Jolean Lescott

Exactly the side England will probably put out (besides substitutes and except for the goalkeeper), but the league is too young for form players to truly emerge, and most of them played well against Israel a few days ago.

Unfortunately for England, no team they put out will beat Russia on Wednesday. Despite all of the bluster from F365 readers (”Can anybody actually name any Russian players? Thought not… Expect a straight forward if not expansive 2 or 3 nil victory and everyone is happy again.“), Russia are quite good and brilliantly managed. Only one of those descriptions fits England. Guus Hiddink, who took Holland to the brink of the World Cup final in 1998, South Korea to the World Cup semifinal in 2002, PSV to the Champions League semifinal, and Australia to the second round of the World Cup in 2006 where they were cruelly eliminated by dint of a bad penalty given against them.

Hiddink’s two World Cup semifinals is two more than England have reached since 1966, one with a talented but temperamental Holland side and one with a hard-working but limited South Korea side. More important that that history is the verve and assurance with which they dispatched Macedonia last Saturday. Simon Gay would surely point to the weakness of the opposition, though he might remember that England could only draw 0-0 against Macedonia last October… in England.

The English team looked decent against Israel, and were good value for their 3-0 win. But Russia shone in their match against comparable opponents, playing some excellent football and winning comfortably despite having their goalkeeper sent off with 20 minutes to play. Russia, with their “no-name” players, were tactically aware, positive and unselfish. Simon Gay may well remember a few of their names after they beat England tomorrow.

Russia 2 : 1 England

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