Liverpool’s stars did well but finding the right position for the Manchester United ace is difficult.
England’s 1-0 win over Denmark on Wednesday hardly left the home fans with a sense of anticipation ahead of the 2014 World Cup, more unanswered questions.
Whilst it was far from a disaster, manager Roy Hodgson tried out a variety of options which had extremely varying success.
So here are the good and bad points fanatix took from the game.
The negatives
Lack of depth in central defence – Let’s start by being downbeat. There seems to often be a position on the pitch where the Three Lions have plenty of talent – currently it is left-back.
In the past it was central defence, with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand at the peak of their game, whilst the likes of Sol Campbell and Tony Adams preceded them.
Yet at the moment things look shaky, as shown by another woeful Chris Smalling performance against the Danes and therefore Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka need to stay fit.
Wayne Rooney – The forward is the country’s best player – and that’s the problem. As a result of the fact the 28-year-old is considered to be world-class, the team is bent out of shape to accommodate Rooney.
This is an issue that stretches right throughout the attack and midfield and is something that is exacerbated by the fact the Manchester United man can’t seem to perform on the international stage.
Even with the Red Devils struggling this term Rooney has been in good form, but don a white shirt at Wembley and the striker becomes anonymous.
Hodgson won’t play Sturridge as a central striker – For some reason the manager is unwilling to allow Daniel Sturridge to play in his preferred No.9 role – this stems back to Rooney again.
Even at Liverpool, Luis Suarez – who is a far superior player to Rooney – has to play in the channels to accommodate Sturridge and that is because the 24-year-old scores goals.
This term the striker’s 18 in just 20 appearances in the league shows that the system works and Hodgson needs to adapt quickly.
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