England are back in business (and so is this blog)

Hello all – I’m the new guy. My name is Matthew and I’ll be taking over the England coverage here on WorldCupBlog.org. I’m a soon-to-be postgrad at England’s University of Sheffield, although I’m currently in Perú and will be in Belgium for much of December. Elsewhere on the Web, I’m the Leeds United blogger over on TheOffside.com (http://leeds.theoffside.com/), after reading which Daryl decided to offer me this gig. You might question the wisdom of volunteering to take time away from writing about a team that’s absolutely on fire (14 wins and two draws from 17 league games this season) to write about a team that is fast becoming the Tottenham of international football, but what can I say, I’m a patriot. That or I take sadistic pleasure in ridiculing Steve McClaren. I’ll post a match preview for Wednesday’s vital European qualifier against Croatia tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s some pre-match reading:

The Guardian’s Richard Williams argues that the “Golden Generation” is rapidly becoming the “Silver Generation”, and makes a superb argument for England switching to an Argentinian-style 4-2-1-3, with Frank Lampard in the playmaker role, Gareth Barry and Owen Hargreaves as holding midfielders, and Theo Walcott and Gabriel Agbonlahor up front. I’m not so convinced that Ashley Young is capable of being the third member of England’s forward trio, but it’s a fascinating idea, not least because this would mean David Beckham, Peter Crouch, Steven Gerrard, and Joe Cole on the bench. This will, sadly, never happen (not least because of the names on that bench), but it’s a great idea that, under a competent manager, could be England’s future.

The always-excellent Martin Samuel of The Times wants David Beckham out of the England squad for Wednesday’s match against Croatia, and as poor a replacement as Shaun Wright-Phillips is, it’s hard to argue with him.

Croatia’s manager, Slaven Bilic, thinks McClaren has done a decent job. He also rates England’s qualifying group as more difficult than that containing France and Italy, so I think it’s safe to ignore the crazy man.

The Sun claims that John Terry, half-fit, just out of surgery, and presumably doped to the gills, wants to captain England on Wednesday. The really sad part is, I wouldn’t be surprised if McClown preferred a semi-conscious John Terry to Sol Campbell or Joleon Lescott.

Football365.com has a good discussion of McClaren’s squad selection dilemmas, predicting a return for Paul Robinson and a five-man midfield with both Gerrard and Lampard, but no Shaun Wright-Phillips.

And for a bit of light relief, Football365.com also has a (satirical) pre-match interview with Peter Crouch, in which he truly speaks his mind about England’s chances on Wednesday.