England 3-0 Belarus: What We Learned

Decent embeddable highlights of England’s 3-0 win over Belarus have been hard to come by. If you want to watch again, then The FA’s YouTube channel has a solid five minutes available here though.

With qualification assured long ago, and Gerrard and Rooney absent, this game was all about learning. Here’s what I learned:

1. Peter Crouch is a goal machine. But only against the lesser nations. Still 18 goals in 35 games, and I’d be very happy to see him on the plane to South Africa. Final four strikers will likely be: Rooney, Heskey, Defoe, Crouch.

2. Gabby Agbonlahor is decent, but dispensable. Will definitely have a role in England’s future though.

3. Gareth Barry is class. His pass for Agbonlahor was perfect and he put in an impressive display.

4. SWP can’t play wide left. It’s just not natural.

5. The rigid 4-4-2 doesn’t work anymore. Our usual 4-4-1-1, or whatever it is, with Rooney dropping deeper than Heskey and Gerrard floating in from the left, is clearly the way to play.

6. David Beckham is still useful from the bench.

7. Fabio Capello has a sense of humour. Here’s what he said about Beckham’s 30 minute cameo earning man of the match honours: “I was a bit surprised,” Capello said. “I just thought it was like Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize after eight months as president. Beckham gets the man of the match after 30 minutes here . . . .”

8. The English public don’t watch Major League Soccer. How do I know this? Because everyone was talking about Beckham’s beard. The one he’s been sporting in MLS for nearly a month now.