Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Two wins from two may sound good on paper. Two clean sheets in consecution sounds great as well but after strolling to a 1-0 win over an average Norway in Oslo, England were outclassed by a talented Belgium side and were lucky to win thanks to a first-half Danny Welbeck strike.
Even more scandalous than Andy Townsend’s choice of Steven Gerrard as England’s man-of-the-match is the fact that Marc Wimots’ Belgium side are 44th in FIFA’s world rankings some 20 places below Norway. Here Wembley watched a genuinely talented set of players who are arguably their countries best group of players or ‘golden generation’ if you want to call them since the 1980’s.
Eden Hazard showed flashes of brilliance. Marouane Felliani showed why he is one of the best centre-midfielder’s in the Premier League. Jan Vertonghen who is likely to join Spurs put in a solid performance with Axel Witsel, Kevin Mirallas and Dris Mertens also making names for themselves in the so-called home of football.
England even in the second-half when they had more of the ball didn’t look in control of the game. Gerrard and Parker were out of shapes, which is hardly surprising given the fact they have yet to really form a partnership together. The fact they were up against Fellaini and Witsel who know each other’s games inside out made life even tougher.
The one bright spark for England was Welbeck who showed why he should be selected ahead of Liverpool’s Andy Carroll up front on Monday week against France. In 54 minutes the gangly Manchester United forward worked his socks of making the most of his big opportunity and as for his goal, well it was a sublime finish.
Some may argue that his goal wouldn’t have occurred had Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany not injured himself in the warm-up, but Welbeck helped win the ball of Moussa Dembele before spriting onto Ashley Young’s through-ball before dinking it in over Simon Mignolet. It was a top finish. Something Emile Heskey bless him couldn’t score even against San Marino.
It was somewhat of a surprise that Roy Hodgson took off Welbeck after the break. Then again first why risk losing your best forward for the France game and secondly Wayne Rooney coming on wasn’t a bad replacement, though due to Belgium controlling the game our Wayne didn’t have too many chances to attack. He impressed at right-back though with a mature and hungry performance.
Speaking of mature, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Arsenal’s youngster who has been lavished by everyone for having a young head on old shoulders put in, well an interesting performance. After dragging two early shots wide, he wasn’t given the chance to try and beat his man Guillaume Gisset too often but he kept going and didn’t let his head go down once.
So with Donestk looming where England face Laurent Blanc’s France, it’s clear that the team need to improve to give themselves a chance against a side who will ruthlessly take advantage of England’s weaknesses and outpass England’s ‘steady’ approach. Here’s hoping Roy’s Boys can prove them wrong and that Glen Johnson can return to the form that established the Liverpool man as his nation’s first-choice right-back.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
