da fezbet： My general attitude to David Pleat when listening to the former Tottenham manager on ITV and BBC radio is to ignore him. In fact, ever since Pleat referred to Hernan Crespo as; “that Italian striker” his opinions lost a fair amount of credibility in my eyes.
da bet7： I was surprised then to hear the former TV pundit pick up on Fabio Capello’s use of his midfielders during England’s friendly win over Denmark on Wednesday night. Pleat’s argument is that the use of two out and out wingers is an unnecessary risk, and a luxury at the top level. Capello would appear to disagree, and whilst a two pronged attack with Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent is becoming a more a more likely option for England’s next round of Euro 2012 qualifiers, the idea of using two fully-fledged wingers is certainly something the Italian is considering as a back up.
However, are England able to justify the use of two attacking wingers in any system? In the past, with David Beckham still patrolling the right hand side of midfield, the national side have had a slightly slower, arguably more balanced midfield. In employing two responsibility free wide men, Capello’s men can potentially gain the sort of penetration that they lacked during the sluggish World Cup campaign.
However, there are major risks to this formation. On Wednesday night, the experiment left full-backs Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole exposed to raids from veteran, Dennis Rommedahl and the impressive but inexperienced, Christian Eriksen. This would be a potential disaster were England to adopt the same system against European rivals with genuine pace down the flanks. Holland or Germany in particular would pounce on this sort of formation with relish.
Admittedly Cole, who has history of struggles against Rommedahl, has shown the ability to keep the very best players quiet. However, it is the role of Glen Johnson that would most concern me in a formation that enabled two wingers to operate with the freedom with which they were deployed against the Danish.
When England line-up against Wales in March, which two of Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing, James Milner and Ashley Young will start is unclear. By then, Capello will hope to be able to call on both Frank Lampard and Seven Gerrard in the centre of midfield, increasing the chance of a two winged system being used again, certainly if he backs out on selecting Darren Bent.
However, the whole conundrum would appear to rest on how keen the Italian will be to give Jack Wilshere his first competitive start in an England shirt. Handing Wilshere a role in the centre would mean sacrificing the increasingly immobile Gareth Barry as defensive cover at the base of midfield. Either Capello would be forced to try and turn Wilshere into a holding player for the trip to Wales, certainly a risk, or to do away with the attacking winger concept altogether.
The concern for Capello is if he doesn’t try a system with two wingers now, there will precious little time to experiment in any sort of meaningful environment until England revert to the system when 2-0 down to Spain in a Euro 2012 semi-final.
Nevertheless, even against a Wales side hammered 3-0 by the Republic of Ireland this week, the thought of leaving Glen Johnson alone to deal with a rampaging Gareth Bale does not sound a sensible proposition.
The demands placed on the modern day full back mean that Cole and Johnson will already be expected to do some attack-minded work for England- both have already been nurtured at club level to display attacking capability- this may convince Capello to shelve the experiment for the time being.
My money would be on Walcott being given the freedom of the right flank against Wales, with James Milner carrying out a conservative brief on the left hand side. This would allow a fit Gerrard and Lampard to team up in the middle, with Jack Wilshere given the nod ahead of Gareth Barry. With the potential problems of a system overhaul, Capello might just hope his plan A is good enough. If not, he’ll just wing it.
If you fancy a lesson on the formations used by Tottenham sides of the 1980’s, sign up via my Twitter account- David Pleat is the guest speaker. Don’t worry about transport Dave and I will pick you up curbside.
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