How Seriously Should England Take the Ukraine Game?

I’ve deliberately avoided all the post World Cup qualification hooplah. Mostly because the usual questions: “Can we win it this time?” etc, make me want to stab myself in the leg with a pencil. And anyone who uses the phrase “Can England win it? Yes. Will they win it? No.” should be reminded that
a) It’s not clever or original if a thousand other people have already said it first, and
b) You deserve to be stabbed in the leg with a pencil.

So, moving on from that little outburst, it’s worth remembering that we still have one two World Cup qualifiers to play, against Ukraine. In Ukraine. On October 10th. And against Belarus at Wembley on the 14th. And there’s actually quite a lot riding on that Ukraine game.

Not for us of course. We’re already through. But Croatia pretty much need us to go to the Ukraine and get a result, if they have any chance of holding onto second place in Group 6 and a World Cup 2010 playoff spot.

So should we field a full side to try and win in Dnepropetrovsk? Or should we pick eleven pub players for a laugh and see what happens? I favour somewhere inbetween.

The games vs Ukraine will be our final competitive encounter before World Cup 2010. Think about that for a second. … We might not need a result, but Ukraine definitely will. And we won’t face opposition who need a result again until the first group game in South Africa.

So I say we field a near full strength team, but with a couple of fringe players given a chance to play alongside the first teamers. Maybe switch Carlton Cole for Emile Heskey and see how he plays with Rooney for 90 minutes. See if either James Milner or Ashley Young can cut in Gerrard’s position, or give Mark Noble a go in centre mid. Maybe give Wayne Bridge a game at left back or give Gary Cahill his debut at centre back. If we’re feeling really crazy, we could give Fabio Capello the night off an let Stuart Pearce manage the senior team.

Actually, scratch that last one. But I’d love to see any of the other ideas given a try, so that we make an honest effort to beat Ukraine (which is only fair to Croatia since they let us spank them 9-2 on aggregate) while giving some of our fringe players a chance to show what they can do. Against Belarus it may not matter so much, as they can no longer take second. So maybe then we can let Pearce manage.