A Scrappy Injury Time Draw Fails To Impress

England were down, but not out, in their Wembley friendly versus Czech Republic. Joe Cole saved blushes from the hosts with his injury time scrap poke, giving a 2-2 scoreline to the low-tempo International Friendly.

England Coach Fabio Capello had said the time for experiments were over and named John Terry as his Field Marshall. 

The visiting Czechs started out patiently, letting the England players play around the edges of the field, but started to assert an element of control around the half hour mark of the contest. From then on England looked increasingly blunt and without vision and flair to break up the well organized Czechs. The latter found more space on the England half and soon took 1-0 and 2-1 leads respectively, but succumbed to the late injury time goal from Cole. Both England’s goals came incidentally from corner kicks, which underline the lack of creativity in outfield play - which characterized the home play during the game. 

The game is an ominous one to England fans and manager alike, as the underlying problem that has characterized International English football through the years; the lack of vision - flair - creativity, looked as absent as ever before. While that might be enough to see off minnows Albania, it is unlikely to scare the likes of Croatia, who like to dictate play against their opponents; and have as a direct consequence landed a couple of crushing blows to England in previous qualifying attempts. 

A problem with Capello’s chosen England tactics is the lack of an out-and-out striker that finds the net regularly and can prey on any defensive mistakes from opponents. Jermaine Defoe and Wayne Rooney has yet to show any such predatory instincts and Michael Owen it seems - is always injured or recovering from injury.  

Another problem is the narrow midfield, causing congestion and notoriously underperforming central midfielders; whether it is Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves or as previously Steven Gerrard. The names look impressive on paper, but if the current England wingers in the form of Steven Gerrard and David Beckham continue to move inwards into the central midfield territory, it gives no space to the central midfield players to try and assess control in that area. Opponents are well aware of this and often back home in the centre and congest this part of the field with midfield players of their own. This forces England to try and find space on the flanks, a job left to the onrushing full backs, and the opponents react by aggressively attacking players with possession on the flanks, and if they win the ball - immediately start a flying counter attack, and with England full backs out of position - it leaves space and gaps within to maneuver.

The Czechs tactics worked to a tee and the England players and coach looked miffed and hapless to try and change their game plan.  

These are glaring weaknesses that Capello must address before the Croatia game, if they are to have any chance of qualifying for South Africa. Possible remedy’s include:

- Playing with one striker (Rooney) coupled with two quick footed Forward Wingers (J. Cole, Gerrard) á la Chelsea style.

- Playing a wider 4-4-2 formation, with out-and-out wingers (sorry Beckham!)

- Major tactical changes, including: Playing with only three defenders and a more direct approach; having atleast one target man of height, full back/wingers and one playmaking offensive player behind the strikers, or using the increasingly popular 4-2-3-1 tactic with two defensive central midfield mops and three attacking midfielders stirring width and creativity into the side.