As Tottenham completed their neutralisation of AC Milan tonight, I set about worrying for England as I always do, but the sickening notion that he’d done a good job wouldn’t go away even after I’d torn off my ear in protest. AC Milan are quite a good team, I kept thinking. How could Redknapp beat them with his seemingly slightly less good team?

Inescapably, Redknapp is doing something right at Tottenham; something worth looking into. I always enjoy dismissing ‘Arry’s managerial achievements as the result of tens of millions of pounds worth of random combinations of players juggled to eventual form something like a team. I’ve always thought of his approach as too hit and miss and too reliant on top-class individuals for it to be taken entirely seriously. With Tottenham though, there is a sense that consistency has finally been achieved (their average league position is 4th), and what’s more, a sense that, albeit with a strong set of individual talents at his disposal, Redknapp has managed to form a team greater than the sum of its parts.

These are easy assertions to make, but they’re also uncharacteristically easy to substantiate:

1. Milan’s starting XI – if Ibrahimovic’s considerable price tag is included – cost far more than Tottenham’s and yet it was Redknapp’s team who dominated the game: notionally worse players outplayed their notional betters. Redknapp: the motivator.

2. Tottenham’s spending has been vast, but Redknapp has built a team from those individuals: his midfield of Modric, Huddlestone, Van der Vaart, Lennon and Bale somehow works well. Redknapp: the man with a plan.

3. I suppose there are things I should put here also.

It’s not just that Redknapp appears to be doing a good job at Tottenham though; it’s the nature of the job he is doing which tempts me to see him as a reasonable candidate for the job of next England manager:

1. He has proved himself capable of moulding a team from players who look incompatible.

2. That first point again

3. Etc

4. Etc

5. Etc

I mean, don’t take this as anything more than internet bla, but I’m coming around to the idea that he wouldn’t be awful. In writing this – in such a bloggy style – I have lowered myself to the position of ‘Second Hamster’ (which is, you will find, a reference to nothing in particular.)

Sturridge does show a lot of promise, I’m certainly not arguing with what he’s done for Bolton so far, but all this talk him being the “future of England” is premature. Three games does not a career make. His goal ratio is phenomenal, but not something he can keep up. His game is good, but there is certainly work to do. He needs to prove his ability for longer than two weeks to earn an England call up. For now, I just hope he keeps doing his thing for Bolton.

Frailty Thy Name is England!

England were defensively really poor, especially in the first half. Highlighted by the fact the Danes could have been 2 up within about 3 minutes, they also hit the post, and opened the scoring. England’s passing at the back was terrible, and if we didn’t have the ball, we looked lost, with the exception of Ashley Cole, who looked good as usual.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Frank Lampard led the team out (for the first time) and struck up a good partnership in the centre of midfield. Which lets be honest, is something that we haven’t always been able to say about him. This partnership was with Jack Wilshire, and the two looked controlling (When England had the ball) dictating the play through the centre. Wilshire actually completed more passes, and made more tackles than anyone else in the first half.

Alas Poor Wilshire! I knew him, erm, Horatio.

Wilshire got subbed at half time after he got kicked towards the end of the first half. Mind you, Lampard and Rooney also went off. One from each club. And Fabio says he absolutely does not have arrangements with the Prem’s managers.

Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t

After half time, England looked better, more controlling. I can only remember one decent Danish effort in the second 45. This made the game less exciting, but showed that Fabio possibly knows what he’s doing. Scott Parker probably made the difference, in all honesty, as he can tackle, and track back.

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

Our best players, however, were James Milner and Theo Walcott, who confused the Danish defence, the commentary team, and us in the liveblog by switching wings every five minutes, as if they were Johan Cruyff and Johnny Rep. Walcott created the equalising goal, after some good work to get past the defender, a good cross, and a tap-in for Bent.

Something is rotten in the State of Denmark

Denmark’s best player was Christian Eriksen which is a bit too close to a former England manager for comfort isn’t it? What rotten mind games are these? Seriously though, the guy is only 18 and he pulled our defence apart. A Prem move would be nice.

2-1 or not 2-1, that is the question.

And England answered, with a deserved second goal. A friendly win, and what have we learned? England are good on the ball, but horrible without it. Wales next month in a qualifier. Hopefully we’ll be a bit more full of confidence from this win that we have been since that horrible game against France.

O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!

The game was on ITV. I hope this is the only post in the history of the world to be tagged with Laurence Olivier and Ashley Cole.

You can play 5-minute fantasy rounds during the Denmark v. England match with our Picklive fantasy game

There are some very recognizable names in this Danish squad, the most obvious being Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner, although Anders Lindegaard, Lars Jacobsen, Daniel Agger, and Christian Poulsen all also play in the Premiership. Bendtner will be the one to watch, because in spite of often finding himself on the bench, he can prove quite dangerous.

Meanwhile, his teammate Jack Wilshere looks to be starting for England after Capello said “In the last two months, he has improved a lot with his confidence” about the young player. He will probably feature a little deeper in the midfield, after Wenger endorsed him in that position. Capello has been given a bit of a selection headache, having to alter his squad after four players (Steven Gerrard. Ben Foster, Peter Crouch and Gabriel Agbonlahor) withdrew due to fitness and personal reasons. This means that Rob Green and Carlton Cole find themselves included after all. It also means that Frank Lampard will be wearing the armband for the first time. Darren Bent is expected to join Rooney up front.

I’m not overly optimistic about this match. After sailing through qualifiers for the World Cup, England has looked a bit of a mess. Something, some confidence and connections between the players, has gone. This is our last friendly before Euro qualifiers start up again, so let’s hope we find it again.

Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow during the match for a liveblog with Ethan and hopefully myself!

Full Squad
Goalkeepers: Ben Foster (Birmingham) [withdrawn], Robert Green (West Ham), Joe Hart (Man City), David Stockdale (Fulham)
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Bolton), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Joleon Lescott (Man City), John Terry (Chelsea), Kyle Walker (Aston Villa)
Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Man City), Stewart Downing (Aston Villa), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) [withdrawn], Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Man City), Scott Parker (West Ham), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal), Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
Forwards: Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) [withdrawn], Darren Bent (Aston Villa), Carlton Cole (West Ham), Peter Crouch (Tottenham) [withdrawn], Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

We haven’t covered the bidding process that much here at WCB, mainly because its been a bit boring, despite the English Press best efforts. I’m more dissapointed than I thought I’d be to be honest, but on the other hand, I do think Russia will be put on a good show and good for them. They are a growing football nation, and at least they have an interest and history in it.

The 2022 World Cup (which we weren’t competing to hold) will be held in Qatar. Which is pretty clearly not a very good choice at all. I mean, its tiny, you are basically going to have Millions of people descending on stadiums all lined up next to one another in the middle of the desert. God knows what the people are Qatar are going to do with all that stadia after the World Cup.

Back to England’s bid, and I’m sure the negative press had an impact on the thing, and I’m fairly sure it could have all been timed to cause less damage, rather than more to to the bid. But at the end of the day, there clearly is a whole bunch of corrupt dealings going on and we shouldn’t turn away from all that.

I’m dissapointed, but hey-ho. There’s a World Cup in Brazil to look forward to.

You’ll never look at him the same again. Let alone give you a crisp.

But it isn’t like that now. For a start, France have had a bad a time of it of late as we have. The song that caught our imagination during the World Cup was Dave Henson’s Gaga Parody At Least We’re Not As Bad As France afterall.

After promising to just stop picking the same XI over and over (more on that in a bit) Capello has gone all out with youth, and tomorrow will hand Gibbs, Carroll and Henderson games. He’s told fans we have to be patient with them, even if they’re a bit rubbish as they adapt to international football.

The squad is decimated with injuries (as it always is at Friendly time) with John Terry, Wayne Rooney, Glen Johnson and Jack Wilshire all not able to play.Joe Hart is a doubt with a slight injury Capello isn’t too worried about, and Phil Jagielka has the flu.

So, in this game we’ll get to see a few players who may or may not be fringe players in future England squads basically. Mind you France also seem to be in limbo with Laurent Blanc claiming that France actually have no great players. He singles out Nasri, Ribery and Malouda as the closest, and they are close enough that you wouldn’t want a makeshift England defence facing them. Oh.

Still, I can see why Fabio has picked a overly young squad to play the game. It is pretty meaningless (although I wouldn’t want to be spanked 4-0 anyway) and it can give some youngsters a chance to prove that actually they can cut it, and maybe give them a taste of football of this level, give them something to shoot for in future.

The problem Capello faces is that no-one really understands the point of friendlies (still). They clearly exist to make a bit of money, and to give international teams a bit of continuity, but you get the feeling that no-one really loves them.

And if Fabio keeps chopping and changing then he looks indecisive, and starts capping new players for the sake of it. If he sticks with the same, he’s picking the same old team.

He can’t pick a team entirely based on form – there would be no continuity, as the players wouldn’t get to know one another at international level and would play badly – he can’t pick players too badly out of form either, and just pick on reputation though, as well we know how that ends.

The other problem with picking players based on form of course is squeezing them into teh system. Capello has got to find one that really works for him with the players that he has. I’m not sure he has to date.

The game is little more than a kickabout between two once-great nations then (although come back here tomorrow and we might have a knockabout liveblog with any luck) but it will be interesting to see how some of the younger players do against a team with some pretty decent names in it. I don’t know if we’ll win, but i’ll probably settle for a good performance to be honest.

The main inclusions I have a beef with are Jay Bothroyd and Chris Smalling. This may sound like an elitist position, and I’ve already been chastised on Twitter for having it, but I stand by the fact that if you play in the Championship, you are not of international quality. If at 28, you’re still at Cardiff City, you are simply not good enough. I realise he’s in form, but being in form in a lower quality league does not necessarily translate to the international level. Now England is not exactly a high quality establishment at the moment and it is just a friendly, but I think that we should maintain some level of standards.

On that same theme, Chris Smalling may be a Manchester United player, one of the best clubs in England, but he’s had 22 minutes of game time this season. We all know that game time is irreplaceable. You can train all you like, but if you’re not put into the infinite unpredictable situations a game presents, your split second decision making will never be up to scratch.

Now, it is probably not a coincidence that the two players I chose to pick on happened to be in positions that my darlings play in, but I stand by my points. I simply can not understand Capello’s thought process in those two decisions. I may be proven wrong on Wednesday, and for the future of England I rather hope I am. The squad as a whole doesn’t look too bad, and I reckon we can give France a game with those players, but it’s decisions like Smalling and Bothroyd which makes me question Capello.