Gareth’s Blog

As the Axe Starts to Fall

Currently the Sporting press are scrambling to name the 23 man England squad, which is being gradually leaked through Twitter and other sites.  The major story at the moment is the exclusion of Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.   Walcott has failed to deliver any sort of consistency to his game, recently descibed by Chris Waddle as lacking a “Football Brain”.  Therefore it appears that Fabio Capello has gone for style over speed if he does, as is now widely expected Joe Cole goes in place of him.   Ironically fate seems to have come full circle and denied Walcott this time, whereas he was the shock inclusion in 2006, when he’d made only a handful of non descript substitute appearances for Arsenal.   In addition Adam Johnson (Middlesbrough), Leighton Baines (Everton), Scott Parker (West Ham), Darren Bent (Sunderland), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), and possibly Ledley King (Tottenham) are the others omitted.  In truth there aren’t serious surprises there, the Spurs trio have enjoyed good domestic seasons but been unable to break into the forefront of Capello’s thinking, Parker hasn’t started an England match for nearly three years, Baines and Johnson will probably feel this tournament was a year too early for them whilst Darren Bent is this generations Andy Cole, a great league goalscorer but totally unable to adapt to international football.   

As ever risks are having to be taken in any World Cup squad.  Capello’s determination to take a possibly half fit Gareth Barry poses risks that might compromise his preferred formation should Barry break down early on in the tournament.   However one issue which many within in the English media seem to have missed is the record of the coach in knock out football over the past few years.  Capellos record is dreadful.  His early success in the 1990′s with A.C. Milan, including the famous 4 -0 drubbing of Johan Cryuffs Barcelona in 1994, have given way to serial underachievement with Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid twice.  His best return since 1995 is a quarter final appearance with Real in 1997 and the same stage with Juve in 2005.  Although he’s enjoyed considerable league success the worry should be for England is that in a tight match can he adapt quickly enough?