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With Rooney and probably Gerrard out this would be a good time to experiment a bit.  I don't think there is anyone who could play the same role as Rooney (possibly Joe Cole when fit) so this game is the chance to see what we would do in South Africa if he was (please no) injured or suspended.  I think that without him we need to play with more width.  I'd like to see how we get on playing a 4-3-2-1.  James in goal, give Cahill a go at centre back alongside Terry, usual full backs.  Three centre-mids of Barry, Carrick and Lampard.  Lennon on the right, milner on the left, both pushed very high up the pitch.  Crouch up top - although its worrying that our two "big men up front", Crouch and Heskey, are not playing much for their clubs.

So, my team:

Gk James
RB Johnson
CB Cahill
CB Terry
LB Cole

CM Barry
CM Carrick
CM Lampard

RW Lennon
LW Milner

CF Crouch

Crouch and Agbonlahor starting as a pairing up front apparently. Could be interesting.

Looking forward to this, hopefully be celebrating the 90% victory rate for the qualifiers.

Might be my last time at wembley for a little while.

I forgot we were playing, thats bad aint it

Gabby and Crouchy are both starting.

Capello says he will stick with Rio

I really don't like Rio.

And maybe Carrick will actually do something tonight...

i agree

how optimistic!

Is it actually on tv tonight?

itv matey

You forgot because the game is irrelevant as we qualified yonks ago. Which is a good thing.

Cheers.

proof that were pussies in england when it comes to snow.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/tvelita4

poland vs slovakia

That is Brilliant

Good start.

Was it even Crouch's goal? Looked like it may have come off the defender.

Capello really needs to find a way to play Crouch and Rooney together, Crouch's strike ratio is the best we have by some distance. I'd be playing them together in our friendlies before the World Cup to see if they can build up a decent partnership. Hard to believe he is the same player that was at that Swindon v Southampton pre season friendly a few years ago, he was fucking shit.

I thought it looked like an own goal

The defender helped but Crouch definitely got the last touch.

I'd take Crouch over Heskey any day of the week... I am truly baffled at Big Emile's international recall.

What the fuck is Beckham growing on his face?!

This game is dire and our performance isn't far off that either. Ouch.

It hasnt been a great watch

The 1/2 time pundits are Z list too!

im looking foward to argentina uraguay tonite! Its gonna be a humdinger

Yeah, I'll be watching the Uruguay game - looking forward to it.

Goal. Wright-Phillips.

This. Jesus christ.

Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch up front, combined 13' of HOOOOOF.

Milner very nearly scored.

So did Beckham

Beckham given Man of the Match from Bruce...

And gets MOTM. Baffling.

Steve Bruce gave Beckham MoM when he's been on for about 20 minutes. Odd.

I'm not bothered as to whether Beckham plays or not... But he's been more involved than most of the players out there tonight.

On a slightly unrelated note provided FIFA use the same ranking procedure as they did at the last World Cup, England will be in the first group of seeds which is good news.

Fuck me. Capello did a joke in English. He compared Beckham getting MoM to Obama getting a Nobel peace prize.

Was it a full moon last night ?  Beckham appeared to be a werewolf.

Went to the game last night - my first experience of an England game at Wembley.  Our performance was wank but I thought Belarus played some decent stuff - I'd say 3-0 definitely flattered us.

What I would say though is that the atmosphere was awful.  Maybe it was because we'd qualified and it was a nothing match, or the fact we didn't play well but I used to go quite regularly when we played our qualifying matches at Old Trafford and the atmosphere was always much better there!

Also was surrounded by people who clearly didn't watch much football - and at one point a few guys sat behind me were getting way too excited when a Mexican wave started going round (something that shouldn't be seen in football stadiums anyway IMO!).

Overall though a very good qualifying campaign - lets hope our key players are fit for the WC though!

I was there too. I've seen England a couple of times at the new Wembley and the atmosphere has been pretty flat each time. The crowd went crazy for Beckham when he came on.

You can't really criticise too much. I don't think many countries in the world could get an attendance of 76k in a dead rubber qualifying game, against a team as poor as Belarus, with the team's best players missing.

Scoring after 4 minutes took all the tension out of the game. Inside the stadium it always felt like it was going to be a comfortable 3 or 4 nil. We always nick one in the last ten minutes as the oppo tire and apart from the one break that Foster saved, Belarus lacked quality in front of goal.

To compare attendances from last night:
England - Belarus: 76,000
France - Austria: 78,000
Italy - Cyprus: 15,000
Germany - Finalnd: 51,000

James Milner has surely booked his place-the last 2 games he's been fucking brilliant

Atmosphere was lacking, it was much better for the likes of croatia, helps when there's more than 200 away fans as well.

Milner has been impressive during his England cameos... He's on the plane if he keeps it up.

I believe Milner has benefited from his development to the point where he's played well, earned his stripes and deserves his caps. Milner hasn't been rushed onto the big stage, 46 Under-21 caps, 200+ Premier League appearances stands him in good stead within international (and domestic) football.

Deserves to be in the squad I think.

I was suprised to see him come on at left-back. Definitely think he's worth a place in the squad, probably the best crosser of the ball in the England set-up (behind Beckham).