Michael Carrick should be in the England squad, Shane Long must start for Ireland and Germany look brittle without Bayern
England should have picked Carrick
In the world of the Hollywood passer, it is a crying shame that Michael Carrick has only ever been an extra for England. A player who has been a key figure in a Manchester United side who have won four Premier League titles and one Champions League since joining them in 2006 has never been deemed good enough to represent his country on a regular basis. How strange. After all, whenever England huff and puff to another sweaty tournament exit, the criticism always centres around their inability to keep the ball, which makes the constant exclusion of Carrick, a smooth-passing metronomic presence in midfield, even harder to understand.
So confident was Carrick that he would not be picked for Euro 2012, he informed the Football Association several months ago that he did not want to be on the bench for England, which meant that Roy Hodgson had to name Jordan Henderson on the standby list instead. Jordan Henderson. "I wouldn't dream of putting Michael Carrick on a standby list after he's made it clear in the past he doesn't want to be involved like that," Hodgson said. "I'd have to be convinced he was better than the four [central midfielders] I've selected, and that he'd be happy to come out of retirement." He shouldn't have needed much convincing. After his exploits for Chelsea from March onwards, there is no doubt that Frank Lampard deserves his place in the squad, and probably the starting lineup. However, the claims of Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker are less obvious.
In Hodgson's first game against Norway, the familiar failings were there. Gerrard galumphed about the place, overhitting passes, conceding possession and injuring a Norwegian with a robust challenge. Parker blocked shots and disrupted moves, but at international level he will not offer much else. Barry came on at half-time, stank the place out, and then departed with a groin injury that could rule him out of the tournament, so England ended the game with a central midfield of James Milner and Henderson. Overall a side as limited as Norway, who have not qualified for a tournament for 12 years, enjoyed 56% of the possession. And still there is no place for Carrick in Hodgson's beloved two banks of four, where perspiration has been valued more highly than inspiration.
Carrick's reputation took a huge dent when he was made to look second-rate by Xavi and Andrés Iniesta in the Champions League final in 2009. But then, who does shine against those two? Carrick took a while to recover from that ordeal, but while there have been doubts over his character, it surely says something for his mental strength that he excelled for United last season. Carrick is far from perfect. With his elegant, leggy stride, he should dominate games more, and he is prone to bouts of invisibleness. He ought to score more as well. But mostly he suffers because a lot of his good work goes unappreciated and is not as eye-catching as Gerrard's Roy Race schtick, which tends to be horribly out of place at international football.
Xabi Alonso, a similar player to Carrick, admires his positional awareness which allows him to always be in the right place at the right time. It means he doesn't have to get his shorts dirty. It doesn't mean he's lazy, or a wimp; quite the opposite, in fact. "Carrick is a player who makes those around him play, regardless of the fact that maybe he is not the player that shines the most individually," said Alonso before Spain's friendly against England last November.
"It is more important to find players who can build a team rather than simply finding two very good players and putting them in the team even if they don't play so well together."
Those comments echo the praise Paul Scholes, another footballer's footballer, has received from legendary foreign players down the years, and yet even he retired from England duty in 2004, tired at being shunted around in order to shoe-horn Gerrard and Lampard into the side.
No one is pretending that Carrick is in the same class as Xavi or Andrea Pirlo and it would be asinine to claim that his presence alone would instantly turn England into tiki-taka specialists. Far from it. Yet when they face France in the first game at the Euros, defeat is likely and complaints will be made about their technical deficiencies and inability to string more than three passes together. Carrick, more qualified than any other Englishman to provide those qualities, will be on the beach. JS
Portugal are in for a struggle
You can always count on Uefa to mess up a good thing. In the current format, the Euros are utterly perfect because 16 teams means only the most deserving are present and unlike the bloated World Cup, which has double that amount, the standard is often outstanding. Naturally Uefa plans to expand it to 24 teams after this summer, thereby diluting the quality on offer. A smaller tournament heightens the chances of a genuine group of death; in 2008 France, Holland, Italy and Romania were drawn together. This time we have the delicious prospect of Denmark, Germany, Holland and Portugal in the same group.
Not that Portugal will be licking their lips. After a turgid World Cup two years ago, their first warmup match saw them labour to an unimpressive 0-0 draw at home to Macedonia, which will not have done much to raise spirits ahead of their opening game against Germany. Given that Holland reached the World Cup final and that Denmark beat Portugal in their recent qualifier, their manager Paulo Bento should be worried. He claims he isn't, but even though he can call on Cristiano Ronaldo, his strong side struggled to create chances against Macedonia. It's so often the dilemma for Portugal: they always have brilliant creators and wide players, but the lack of a top-class striker means they fall agonisingly short. Improvement is needed to avoid a speedy exit. JS
Holland need 'anti-football'
Johan Cruyff described Holland's performance in the 2010 World Cup final as "anti-football", but those robust tactics used so proficiently in South Africa could be the best option for Bert van Marwijk in Poland and Ukraine. Cruyff was appalled by the Dutch approach against Spain, with Nigel de Jong's disgraceful challenge on Xabi Alonso the standout memory of a dour contest, but he may have been similarly aghast when watching a strong Oranje side lose 2-1 to Bulgaria on Saturday.
Illiyan Mitsanski's injury-time header at the Amsterdam Arena secured an unlikely victory for a team who finished bottom of England's qualifying group with five points from eight games. Holland stormed through their Euro group with nine wins out of 10, scoring 37 goals along the way, but have since seen their rhythm fade. They lost their last qualifying tie to Sweden before drawing a blank in a friendly against the Swiss and succumbing 3-0 to Germany. A victory over England at Wembley followed the comprehensive defeat in Hamburg, but that was, well, against England.
Van Marwijk's preferred formation is 4-2-3-1 but the form of Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has caused him a selection headache. After the striker asked his coach for "a little more faith" he has begun to start games alongside Robin van Persie up front. The Dutch have rarely been short of attacking options throughout their history and are beginning to pay for having too much quality in that area. Van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart all played at the weekend alongside Huntelaar, while De Jong and Mark van Bommel were left to pick up the pieces, and their defence suffered another blow with a hamstring injury to Joris Mathijsen.
Van Marwijk was caught slapping the turf furiously when a defensive mishap from Johnny Heitinga allowed Bulgaria their late winner. His side could do with regaining that same bite. JR
Long may he continue
Giovanni Trapattoni will have woken up with a smile on Sunday morning, pleased with his side's belatedly impressive performance against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the sunshine-splashed splendour of Saturday afternoon. But that grin will have been softened somewhat by the resulting selection headache that has come from the 1-0 victory. Before the game, the Republic of Ireland manager was quick to let the world know that, barring injuries, the door leading to a starting place for the match against Croatia would be firmly shut in the faces of the fringe players: "I hope there are no injuries that would make me change my mind [because in the Croatia game] I will start with my usual team." However, it may be goals and not injuries that forces a change in the septuagenarian's famously obdurate opinion.
Kevin Doyle has had a dire time at Wolverhampton Wanderers of late – registering a timid three Premier League goals since October and none for the last three months of the season – and the Wexford-born striker did little to reassure the watching fans or watching manager that he has put that behind him and deserves his place in the starting 11. He worked hard, as he always does, but it came to little more than a nice lay-off here and there and he rarely posed a serious threat to the Bosnia-Herzegovina defence. Shane Long, however, spent less than half the time on the pitch that Doyle did yet looked far more formidable up front. His intelligent movement and timing allowed him the space to score his seventh international goal in 25 games (Doyle has 10 in 47) with a well-taken close-range header, after some neat work from the deserved man of the match Aiden McGeady. The West Bromwich Albion striker almost doubled his tally close to full time only to be denied by a stupendous, last-ditch scooping save from the Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.
Ireland are defensively solid but they wasted quite a few opportunities on Saturday. At international tournaments, goalscoring chances are almost as rare as an Emile Heskey 30-yard-top-corner-net-busting screamer and a confident, competent striker will be needed to convert any chances that come Ireland's way. Right now, Doyle does not fit that description but Long does. Not many pundits are giving Ireland a chance of making it out of the group stages at the Euros but they will surely stand a better chance of getting past Spain, Italy and Croatia if Trapattoni starts Long, rather than Doyle, alongside Robbie Keane. IMc
Germany are still reliant on Bayern's blueprint
The Germany manager, Joachim Löw, blamed a lack of freshness for his side's surprise 5-3 friendly defeat in Switzerland but that sounds like a convenient way to avoid criticising the understudies who are plainly not up to the standard of his absent Bayern Munich players. Without them Germany are like an old Hollywood western set – an easy-on-the-eye facade which is hollow at the back.
Without eight Bayern players Germany's defence were a poorly stitched seam, giving way when stretched. Arsenal's Per Mertesacker was a rusty mess, slow on the turn (think Hangeland v Young at half pace) and lacking any kind of understanding with Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels. While the 20-year-old Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen stayed pinned to his line, unable or unwilling to take charge as Switzerland peppered the box with crosses that were coming in far too easily from the poorly defended flanks.
"Our communication was poor and thus we conceded five goals. It was only a friendly match and there's a lot to be learned from this game. We made a lot of mistakes, but we still have two weeks and I'm not worried," Löw said. Perhaps he is right not to be too concerned. If fit, four of Germany's back five will comprise Bayern players at Euro 2012. Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Holger Badstuber and Jérôme Boateng are all likely to start. While Bastian Schweinsteiger, who often plays deeper at international level, shielding his back four and always providing an outlet in midfield, is also a vital defensive component. Without these players, Germany were like an Audi with a Ford chassis: all over the place.
Dortmund may be the dominant club in the Bundesliga these days, but the success of the national team is still reliant on Bayern's blueprint. Providing Bayern's players haven't suffered complete psychological meltdown since their Champions League penalty shootout defeat to Chelsea, Germany will be a much stronger and fluid machine in Poland and Ukraine. GB Read More
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