neyo

Enjoyed a pretty impressive performance by England today, against Israel in the Euro 2008 qualifier. Israel aren’t quite the knockovers some would be lead to believe, and it was a solid, if not wasteful performance by England that lead them to a tidy win. It’d be fair to say that the 3-0 scoreline, with goals from Wright-Phillips, Owen and Richards, wasn’t at all flattering on England, having missed many more chances. Owen had a great chance to put England 2-0 up before half time, after Heskey earlier in the first half equally had a great chance, but failed to hit the target. Despite that early miss, I have to say I was VERY impressed with Emile Heskey’s performance today. I am not ashamed to admit I’ve never been his biggest fan, i’ve never been a fan of target men in general, and the negative footballing style it injects into a team, but despite that, I was impressed with his hold up play. He looked strong, confident and invariably won the ball, laying it on to Owen and fellow team-mates. On the basis of that performance, I’d seriously ask the question, do we have a better target man, than Emile Heskey in England? Some might argue Peter Crouch as the obvious alternative but watching the two play, they are quite different players. Despite Crouch’s apparent size, he’s really not quite as good in the air as you’d hope, and you wouldn’t need to be a scientist to work out why Heskey looks stronger on the ball than Crouch. I hope to see Owen and Heskey, starting Wednesday night against Russia.

Wide players today were especially noticable with the two Cole’s linking up very well down the left side. It’s an interesting combinantion, with Joe being right footed, and Ashley being left footed. Of course it makes more sense to play a left footed player along the left side, yet in playing Joe, it mixes things up considerably. Not only will he come inside, and constantly trick, twist and turn defenders, but he’ll get overlap support from Ashley, who has and did do so for England today. On the other side of the field, we have Micah Richards and Shaun Wright-Phillips, two players 6 months ago you would most certainly not expected to be starting for England. In my view, Gary Neville will have a hard fought battle, to replace the newly found Richards, who once again looked impressive at right back, looking both physically strong, but also comfortable on the ball. He, like Ashley also found alot of opportunity to overlap Shaun Wright-Phillips and give the Israelli left back extra cause for concern. Wright-Phillips certainly put on a great show for his start today, putting up a firm argument for why he should start, over both David Beckham and Aaron Lennon. Not only was it great positioning for the goal, very tidily finished as well, but his wing play was again first class, going up and down the line, supporting Richards at right back too.

The much debated midfield was put to a different test today, with Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard taking centre stage. It’s fair to say that Barry had a very tidy display, playing a couple of estute through balls to the forwards, one leading to a chance for Ashley Cole. His gameplay style, also allowed Gerrard to play the way he wanted to, something most England fans would like to see, and against Israel, he did that. He invariably sat deep, collecting the ball from Terry and Ferdinand, and pinging balls wide to Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole. He also showed powerful charges, much like we’re used to seeing him do for Liverpool and it was a pleasure to see. Whilst he didn’t have the greatest game in an England shirt, it’s refreshing to see Gerrard not fighting for the limelight, with Beckham and Lampard breathing down his neck. The age old dilemma constantly rears it’s ugly head, about who should play midfield, and in my view, it’s should all revolve around Gerrard. My personal pick for the central midfield duo, Gerrard and Hargreaves, which I’d imagine would give Gerrard both stability and licence to roam. Maybe we’ll see this on Wednesday?