JUNE 14 ― It’s time for England to join the World Cup party as Roy Hodgson’s team face Italy in the jungle city of Manaus tonight/early tomorrow, and it will be fascinating to see how the Three Lions equip themselves after a preparation period which has coaxed my long-suffering countrymen into thinking the team might just ― shock of shocks ― be quite good.
For a long time, expectations were very low as England laboured their way through the qualifying campaign, drawing twice against Ukraine, drawing away to Poland and Montenegro and generally looking anything but world beaters.
In the last few weeks, however, a new mood of nervous optimism has started to spread. Don’t get me wrong: nobody thinks England will actually win the World Cup. But whereas the initial reaction to the draw was that England would struggle to progress past the group phase, there’s now a temptation to start thinking – tentatively and not quite with full conviction – that a place in the quarter finals could be a realistic target.
The chief cause for this outbreak of positivity is the exciting performances of Liverpool in the second half of the Premier League season, based upon a cluster of players who will also represent the national team over the next few weeks.
Steven Gerrard’s reinvention as a holding midfielder, his burgeoning partnership with the much-improved Jordan Henderson, the dazzling wing play of Raheem Sterling and the goalscoring exploits of Daniel Sturridge provided an unexpected title challenge from the Reds, and although they eventually fell just short Liverpool’s emergence was a shining feature of the season.
Anfield isn’t the only source of promise. A few hundred yards across Stanley Park, another talented young player made a big impression for near neighbours Everton: Ross Barkley is only 20 years old but Toffees manager Roberto Martinez placed trust in his technical ability and reaped the rewards, with the midfielder finishing the campaign with six goals and a series of dazzling individual displays.
And with Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continuing to develop promisingly and Southampton skipper Adam Lallana settling in nicely at international level, all of a sudden England appear to be blessed with a surfeit of talented, technical ball playing creative performers where previously there were none.
Well, not quite none. For the last few years, Wayne Rooney has habitually been labelled “England’s only world class player”, and until very recently the Manchester United star was widely regarded as his nation’s only realistic hope of making decent progress in Brazil this summer.
His form, however, has been distinctly ordinary, with Rooney missing the end of the season through injury to round off an up and down campaign on a suitably frustrating note. The warm-up games did little to renew hope, with Rooney looking out of touch and lacking in confidence, bearing the appearance of a man who knows he’s not playing well and desperately trying to fight his way back to form.
From being cast as England’s great hope, the question now being posed is whether Rooney is even worth a place in the team. With Lallana, Sturridge, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling and Barkley all in good shape, leaving one of them out to accommodate the emblematic but misfiring Rooney is not an easy task for Hodgson and must have been one of his chief dilemmas over the last few weeks.
Nevertheless, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s injury (he should be back for the second game) simplifies the matter for the England boss and Rooney will almost certainly start against Italy, probably in a free role behind lone striker Sturridge.
The wide positions will be filled by two from Lallana, Sterling and the frustrating Danny Welbeck, who has spent much of the last two years consistently failing to be the excellent player he looks capable of becoming.
Barkley, for all his promise, will probably have to settle for a place on the bench, with Hodgson prepared to use his dynamic energy as a dangerous impact substitute when Italy start to tire in the heat and humidity midway through the second half.
The big worry, of course, is that England don’t have time to waste in hitting their stride. Defeat against Italy would be extremely costly, with a tough Uruguay and under-rated Costa Rica coming up next in a group where every point will have to be earned.
Hodgson is by nature a fairly conservative, risk-averse manager, and the prospect of throwing in all the youngsters will not be an appealing one to him. Despite Rooney’s poor form, his experience and status counts for a lot on the eyes of the manager and he’ll be given longer to find his form than any of England’s other players.
He is, of course, a mercurial performer and perfectly capable of hitting a rich vein of form at any time. If that happens now, with a talented, young and dynamic supporting cast, England might just do even better than anyone is daring to believe.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
