Same old debates in the Premiership, same old problems for England

Internationals / James Linden / 20 August 2007 / Leave a Comment

James takes us for another trip down Linden Lane to look at why McClaren will be scratching his head come the Israel match

It has been a fascinating start to the Premiership season with so many talking points already. Three games gone and there are some things that never change, like the cry for goal-line technology, or Rob Styles, refereeing far too many Chelsea games for it to be a coincidence. Tottenham (reportedly) want to get rid of Martin Jol despite being above Manchester United, while Sven is top of the league. Yes, 'the' Sven Goran Eriksson, a man so ridiculed by everyone in England for his tenure as the national boss. I wonder however if we would have wanted to get rid of the Swede so quickly if we had known Steve McClaren was to be his replacement...?

It's England-Germany this Wednesday night and I don't know about you but the prospect is hardly inspiring. We can only hope that the boys put on a rousing performance to lift the nation before the crucial European Championships qualifiers next month. If the prospect of playing Germany can't get the players up for it then there is plenty to worry about.

I do sympathise with McClaren to an extent. He has not been helped by a series of injuries to several fringe players who I anticipate he would like to have a look at again such as Jonathon Woodgate and Aaron Lennon. He also has players in his squad who will pull out. Sol Campbell had been given another chance but is a casualty and I'm sure there will be others who will follow. Wayne Rooney is of course a huge loss and there is a huge burden on Michael Owen to perform once again with immediate effect. I'm not hopeful however.

The squad, despite its size looks desperately short of quality behind the starting eleven and I think it is important McClaren looks at players who are untried or unproven at this level. Micah Richards, Nicky Shorey, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Gareth Barry, Andy Johnson and Darren Bent would all start in my team surrounded by experienced players to help bed them in. We need to look again at these players and give them a chance, at Wembley, playing for England. What happens if Owen has another setback before the Israel game on the 8th of September? We would be without Owen, Rooney and Peter Crouch who is suspended for the Israel game. We must give players like Bent and Johnson a chance again, they may not be good enough yet to play at this level but if they are not given the opportunity how will we know? I would be particularly amazed if Everton's Johnson is not given another chance. He puts in a phenomenal amount of work and assuming McClaren was watching Everton's victory at Tottenham last week (and not applying for Martin Jol's job) then Johnson must get a chance.

I anticipate McClaren will stick with the basic 4-4-2 as he does not have the bottle to listen to Terry Venables and try three at the back again. Expect Paul Robinson to stay in goal, and a back four along the lines of Phil Neville at right-back, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry in the middle with Ashley Cole at left-back. David Beckham will start I'm sure, he's coming to play you would assume so once again we will play without a natural winger. Joe Cole will play on the left and due to injuries I expect Michael Carrick to hold with Frank Lampard supporting Owen and Johnson.

If you have to get involved from a betting point of view wait until full team news is announced as Germany are also missing a host of players including Torsten Frings, Michael Ballack, Sebastian Schweinsteiger, and Miroslav Klose. It could well end up looking like a 'B international come kick-off so as ever when it comes to friendlies, tread carefully if you have to bet and keep stakes to a minimum.