Heskey’s role is up for grabs
ENGLAND may well have already booked their place in the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer, but Saturday’s qualifier against Ukraine in Kiev remains a big game for Fabio Capello.
While it would normally be an ideal time to experiment, Capello strikes me as the kind of man who believes in keeping the momentum going and I think we will see a pretty familiar starting line-up on Saturday evening despite the suggestions he may experiment.
Right from the outset, the trip to Kiev would have been one of those that would have appealed to Capello – a tough away game against a decent side and the perfect test ahead of a World Cup campaign. Nothing will have changed now and he knows he will have plenty of opportunity to experiment in the New Year friendlies.
CONSIDERATION
Not only that, Capello still has a number of first-eleven issues to ponder, not least in the front line. Emile Heskey is one of those players who needs to be playing regular games and his body language while coming on as a substitute for Aston Villa on Monday night just didn’t look right.
Wayne Rooney is a must, but Capello has the luxury of having a number of potential strike partners in a rich vein of form right now like Carlton Cole, Gabriel Agbonlahor and even Darren Bent, who, if he carries on scoring for Sunderland, must be given consideration at some stage.
Whatever happens, there won’t be too many of us able to watch England’s progress on Saturday due to the very disappointing decision by the Ukrainian FA to sell the TV rights to digital specialists Perform, who will broadcast the match online only.
I’d like to think that due to the fact we have already qualified, this is a one-off, as I can’t believe, in this day and age, a major broadcaster like the BBC or Sky would not intervene and buy the rights for a game which had something riding on it.
It’s a big shame many of us won’t get to see England this Saturday but it really can’t see it happening again.