While the country moans and complains, let’s try and be positive

By: Martini Extra Dry | September 7th, 2008

The England game against Andorra was always going to receive negative press unless one of two things happened; 1. England went out there and put in an impressive performance (pffff! lets not get carried away!) or 2. we thrashed them by about 4 goals plus. In reality the game was a half measure on both these scales. A 2-0 win and a performance that wasn’t great but wasn’t shite.

So what’s the positives to take from the game? Well, as a Villa fan and a full member of the We Love Ashley Young Fan Club, Stewart Downing’s performace was surely enough to see him dropped and Ashley Young taking his place. I won’t go as far as to say that Downing was crap but he didn’t make much happen did he? If you look at the terror that Theo Walcott was putting into the Andorra defence over on the right flank, just imagine what Young could’ve done if we’d had double penetration (as in, Young on the left flank… what were you thinking?!). Ashley Young is a lot like Walcott, with the addition of an end result to his lightning-fast runs down the wing.

Young also gets involved deeper down the pitch. He will pop in around the half way line to collect the ball and then move the game forward. England went backwards with the ball too much on Saturday, considering who we were playing against. Maybe against Croatia on Wednesday, back passes will be a good idea sometimes, but against Andorra we should’ve been throwing wave after wave of attacks in. Ashley Young could’ve given us more of that. If England consider themselves capable of reaching the latter stages of the World Cup finals, they have got to be crushing teams like this.

Other positives for England; Theo Walcott is a definite future talent. He got himself down the wing with the ball many times on Saturday and with a bit more experience he can start to make that little bit more out of his efforts and then apply it to the bigger teams. I don’t think he’s ready to face better opposition yet but he is certainly on the right track.

Gareth Barry was not at his best but he is still carving a place for himself in the starting line-up. If ever Fabio Capello finds himself with an injury free midfield, Barry has now done enough to keep his place. Hargreaves is possibly a better player by a narrow margin but Barry is getting nicely acquainted with the team now.

How about a Barry, Gerrard, Walcott and Young midfield line? Could definitely do damage to Kazakhstan or Belarus.

Wayne Rooney again wasn’t at his best in an England top and Defoe got few chances because England played the ball in the air too much. England still need Michael Owen if we expect to see goals aplenty. Well, ideally we need a new Michael Owen, as he is unfortunately injured too much. And as much as England fans won’t want to admit it, his best partner is probably still Emile Heskey. They made goals together. OK, Owen made Heskey look like he was doing nothing, but when they played together England scored goals and terrified defences.

Never fear though England fans, we will triupmh in the face of adversity. We will use the humiliation of the rough patch we’ve been through to build a stronger team that will do well at the World Cup in South Africa (Join me in trying to convince yourself of that last sentence).