WHEN a football team isn’t scoring goals, you can usually point the finger of blame at one of two departments. Either the forwards are passing up and wasting chances, or the midfielders simply aren’t creating them. And, in England’s case at present, it’s the latter. I felt sorry for Andy Johnson on Saturday night. He worked his socks off as usual, but the service was non-existent. It wasn’t Johnson’s fault that England struggled to score against Israel. It wasn’t Wayne Rooney’s fault. The fault lay squarely with a midfield which didn’t click – and hasn’t done for two or three years now. At the heart of the problem, as ever, is the refusal to address the Frank Lampard-Steven Gerrard situation. To my mind, England have historically performed best playing a 4-4-2 formation. And that system has worked best when it has individuals within it playing in their natural positions. As much as I love Jamie Carragher as a player, I wouldn’t have had him playing left back on Saturday night. Gareth Barry would have been a much more sensible option. Then, when you select the midfield, it’s unbalanced and ineffective to have a right winger playing wide on the left. Stewart Downing would have been the better option to play wide left, leaving Aaron Lennon free to operate down his more natural position of right wing – which then leaves two places in the middle. On current form, and in the minds of most England fans, Owen Hargreaves and Steven Gerrard would get the nod. I think that would automatically be a more creative midfield – and strikers like Johnson wouldn’t have to feed off scraps. AJ had just one half-chance – with his head – all evening, and that’s not enough for any striker to show what he can do. You can have Pele up front alongside Diego Maradona, but if you don’t create chances they’re not going to score. Which is why I really felt for Johnson on Saturday. Wemb-glee experience just fantastic WHILE the clocks went forward at the weekend, I turned mine back . . . about 27 years!
For the first time since West Ham played Arsenal in the 1980 Cup Final I enjoyed the full fan experience at Wembley, and it was an outstanding day out.
I was working for Sky Sports News at the Under-21 international, but was warned that because of limited parking it would be easier to take the train.
I went overland to Liverpool Street, took the underground to Wembley Park . . . then spotted the first change.
You don’t have to cross the road any more when you come out of the underground station. You go under it and then you have that wonderful long walk up Wembley Way, which is still as charismatic and colourful as ever.
The stadium itself is very impressive from the outside, but inside it is simply stunning.
I was jealous of the under-21 players who got to perform there, and my only gripe would be the condition of the playing surface wasn’t great.
At least the Wembley officials have six or seven weeks to rectify that ahead of the Cup Final.
There were 55,000 in there – some 35,000 short of capacity – so I would imagine that the atmosphere for a full house there with two club sides in action would be amazing.
The whole experience was fantastic – I didn’t even mind the shoving back onto the tube afterwards – and I can thoroughly recommend the new Wembley.
I hope Evertonians get the chance to experience it very soon. | 
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