Old for new? - England v.s. Spain and the future.

Today, England face Spain at Wembley in what the FA probably hoped would be a repeat of the 2010 World Cup final (as we all knew deep down, that was never going to happen - even if we had finished 1st in the easiest ever group).

England coach Fabio Capello - who will be replaced after the Euro 2012 Championships, announced yesterday that Frank Lampard will captain the team for the game against Spain because John Terry will be on the bench (and almost certainly come on early in the 2nd half) and that Terry will start against Sweden.  Er, why?

Why choose Frank Lampard as the captain? He's past his best and never got to show his true potential at international level anyway, so why pick him to lead the team out against the international team in the world? Who else is there I hear you cry?  There are many of the younger players who will be playing the Euros next year who would love to captain their country, or one of the players new to the England setup such as Scott Parker.  He may only be 2 years younger than Frank Lampard, but he's twice the player Frank is.  So far this season, he's proved what a great player he is and what a great player he has always been.  As I've said many times before, he's the type of player that pretty much every Premier League club needs; a player that will give 100% every game, a player that never stops running and a player that will win the ball 9 times out of 10.

At West Ham, he did a better job of captaining the team than Matthew Upson could ever do, just think back to when West Ham were 3 - 0 away at West Brom, it was no secret that Parker's half time team talk basically won the Hammers a point, where to be honest, we really shouldn't have done.  In my opinion, he is the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League, the role he plays for Tottenham suits them really well - he wins the ball the opposition's half, skirts around one or two players and gives the ball to Modric, Bale or Van der Vaart and lets them get on with making chances and scoring goals.  Just imagine what he could do in competitive internationals if he was used in that way?  What I want to see is him trying to control Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Fabregas - if he can do it people will be wondering why on earth he's only got 10 caps (after today's game).

With just under 8 months to go until the 16 best footballing countries in Europe go to Poland and Ukraine, why doesn't Capello just forget about players such as Lampard and Terry? After their poor performances in the World Cup two years ago do they really deserve to represent their country at the very top level again?  Obviously I don't know who Capello will choose next year, but if he wants to try and use young players, he's going to have a few spaces that need filling and guess who's going to fill them? Terry, Gerrard (if he's fit) and Lampard etc...

What ever way you look at it, those players will go to Poland and Ukraine and quite frankly, it will be a waste of time.  Terry and Lampard will be so tired out from (in vain) chasing the Premier League title that they'll be a similar situation as at the World Cup - complete and utter burnout.

That's why Capello needs to effectively start again with England - remove Terry, Lampard, Gerrard and co from his mind and just focus on the players who will one day be playing at a World Cup.  Maybe he needs to learn from Arsene Wenger and play the youngsters and new players, so that in 5 or 6 years, even though he won't be involved, we might actually have a chance at a major tournament, because the way he's going, England will find themsleves getting knocked out at the quarter finals again - let alone the semi finals, which we haven't reached since Euro 1996 and we were at home then.

Four questions Fabio:

Why no Rooney - against Spain? If England want to be serious contenders in Poland and Ukraine, then why isn't he using Rooney against a team that they could be playing next year?
                                  
Why no Micah Richards? In my opinion, the best right back in the Premier League and he's playing regularly for the league leaders for crying out loud!

Why Lampard as captain?

Why Lampard at all?


TB 2011