San Marino vs. England

You would assume that instead of the nation bemoaning the loss of a 'national treasure' from the England team in Rio Ferdinand, we should be complaining about a lack of quality Englishmen in our league!

In fairness tonight, Rug and myself could probably keep out a team of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, who just happen to like a game of football after work, and for me, this remains a stupid waste of a fixture and our players wouldn't have to be competing in these non event internationals, if UEFA/FIFA made the sensible call to only allow a set number of teams to compete in qualifiers, based on their own ranking systems. Who benefits from playing a team like San Marino? Our players gain nothing, but the potential for injury or a careless yellow card, whilst how can a football minnow develop, when all it strives to achieve is retaining its pride and self preservation. Davide Gualtieri may be a national treasure for scoring against England 20 years ago, but it is still only one win in the nations football history that makes them a waste of football time, and surely they and others in the lower levels of FIFA's 207 other clubs would be better to face facts and understand they are better developing alongside each other, instead of playing the game, with all eleven players behind the ball.

Of course, England have defensive problems, but lets forget about that tonight, I even if the two selected centre halves have nightmares, you have to assume that England have enough about them to score at least four times, even with every opposition shirt behind the ball. Personally, I would like to see Steven Caulker and Steven Taylor benefit from at least having the experience of a cap and hope that Smalling and Lescott are able (to a point) to keep out the might of group leaders Montenegro on Tuesday, in what is sadly for us, a must not lose game at the very least. England still have to play Montenegro, home or away, whilst they also have to play Poland at home, so you feel as long as we gain 3 points tonight and at least a draw on Tuesday, we should be on the plane for Brazil.

Tonight may well be a case for playing some of the squad players and allowing the likes of Gerrard, Rooney and a few others to be rested fit for Tuesday. Montenegro are away to Moldova tonight, so although it is a game they should win with some comfort, they may not feel as confident in resting a few key players and gaining their own must have three points. Is tonight a very real opportunity to effectively play a totally different side to the one that will play on Tuesday? For example, could we consider, Forster, Walker, Taylor, Caulker, Baines; Parker, Milner, Lampard; Sturridge, Defoe and Young tonight and select, Hart, Johnson, Smalling, Lescott, Cole; Carrick, Gerrard, Milner, Walcott, Welbeck and Rooney on Tuesday. Of course we can debate the exact selections, but it does allow for players to remain focussed on one game and in the cases of some key players, we keep them safe for the one that really matters...

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