England vs USA

Obviously the problem with everyone stopping to watch England games is that suddenly everyone has a rubbish opinion of them.

England played fairly well in patches, and should have scored at least one goal more than they did. At the other end, they stupidly gave away a goal and a decent chance. In between the two goals, England played some great stuff, switching the play quickly, and getting through seemingly at will. Once they had conceeded, they seemed a bit shellshocked, and lacking confidence, didn't have quite the same snap. They still should have scored twice in the second half.

Gerrard played reasonably well in midfield. The truth is that when he and Lampard play together, they both limit the other's effectiveness. However, a few shockers from Lampard aside, they both passed the ball reasonably well, and were solid defensively. I return to my post some weeks ago to reiterate that whilst they were far from ideal, England made the right selection here simply because Gerrard playing in a conventional central midfield role is still better than any of the other options (Carrick, Milner, would have been King I suppose). When Barry is back, he slots in with Lamps.

And then the second issue, aside from the keeper (I said four times before the game on Saturday that Green was guaranteed one mistake a match, and that if you picked him, you just had to hope that it wouldn't cost a goal: so apologies for my doubtless jinxing, but I would blame the fact that Green is not a top class keeper, and never will be) is the attack. Heskey had a manful game, tustling ceaselessly, excellent in the air and creating a fair bit of space. He also missed a cracking chance at 1-1. And this game pretty much sums up what England will get from the Hesk. The problem on Saturday was more the fact that Heskey's brave, selfless front running is supposed to create space for Rooney, and Rooney was reasonably quiet, aside from some decent touches and one shot.

The option being put forward by many is that whilst Heskey's target man play is very honourable, his inability to finish simple chances has deteriorated massively, and he should therefore be binned off to allow Rooney to play as the lone frontman, with Gerrard behind, allowing both to play where they do for their clubs, and maybe bringing Joe Cole onto the left. I am quite sure that Capello doesn't do this for the simple reason that he feels that Rooney does not have the temperament to take the sort of battering that Heskey did on Saturday, and that if he does, he will snap and plant his studs in someones nether regions, or unleash a torrent of swearing, etc. etc. etc.

It's a tricky decision (England can't afford to miss chances like Heskey did on Saturday, but yet also can't afford a dismissal to Rooney). I would probably say that against Algeria, we have to select the attacking unit that demolished Croatia at home, and give them a chance, which means Heskey up front, Gerrard with a free role from the left, cutting inside and allowing Ashley Cole to overlap, Gerrard interchanging with Rooney from the hole, with one ensuring they defend the left midfield channel, pace from Johnson and Lennon on the right, and Lampard free to get forward from midfield with Barry holding. Any enthusiasm that has built up around England is from the attacking performances of this unit, and it would be silly to not give them a chance in a reasonably straight forward match with Algeria.

The USA were fairly manful, if limited and lucky. They probably don't have a striker likely enough to score many goals, with most of their potency in Dempsey and Donovan cutting in from the wings, and it will be interesting to see if they can beat Slovenia. Bradley looked a decent scrapper in midfield, I thought. They were fucking lucky though.