Filed under: Euro 2012, Football, England Football
While Fabio Capello's side were enjoying the most comfortable of opening 45 minutes in Cardiff, the performance will have made for more awkward viewing for two of the non-playing members of the England set-up.Gareth Barry was in the stadium but didn't even make the bench while Steven Gerrard will have watched from home while he nursed a groin injury. And as pleased as both players will have been to see the side give the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign a welcome boost, they may well have felt a pang at the realisation that the competition for places in midfield has suddenly intensified.
Capello's decision to adapt his formation and employ Scott Parker in a holding role, allowing Jack Wilshere and Frank Lampard to press forward gave the team a more solid look in the central areas. Further forward, Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young linked well with main striker Darren Bent and the movement proved too much for Wales to handle.
The coach tweaked with the system in the last friendly against Denmark and he seems at last to have abandoned his rigid belief in the 4-4-2 formation that looked so dated at the World Cup last summer.
Importantly though, the performances of Parker and Wilshere - admittedly against a poor Wales side - confirmed there suitability for the roles they were asked to fill. And that's not something you've always been able to say about an England midfield, particularly when Lampard and Gerrard have played together.
Of course Gerrard has less to worry about and the Liverpool captain will come back into the side as soon as he is fit, possibly at the expense of Lampard.
Barry has much more to worry about and having appeared increasingly immobile over the last 12 months, the Manchester City midfielder is likely to be relegated from being one of the first names on the team sheet to a fringe player.
Wilshere's emergence gives the biggest cause for hope and the future is always going to look a lot brighter when such a prodigiously talented young player comes on the scene.
The way Parker has forced his way back into contention is equally admirable, though, and the West Ham man is finally being rewarded for the hard graft he puts in on a weekly basis for his club although at 30, he is entering the latter stage of his career.
Capello praised both. "He played very well, he won back a lot of balls for us," the coach said of Parker while referring to Wislhere he said: "It was incredible the performance of this player. His improvement in such a short time is incredible. He plays like he is 28 or 29 with 40 caps."
Both players have not yet been tested against top quality opposition at international level but the way Wilshere has performed for Arsenal in the Champions League promises much.
England have looked too stale for too long and the senior players undoubtedly need shaking up. Parker and Wilshere have offered an initial sign that they are capable of doing just that
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/03/26/england-euro-2012-jack-wilshere-scott-parker-fabio-capello/
Gael Monfils Gary Neville Gennaro Gattuso Geoff Ogilvy Gianluca Zambrotta
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