Middling to Average

Day 3 of my ceaseless quest to enlighten you on the Euros, and it’s time to look at those making up England’s midfield. Compared to the depth of the defence, it’s pretty sparse:

Steven Gerrard

He, along with quite a few others, is part of that ‘Golden Generation’ which we heard so much about but still failed to ever progress past a quarter final. He certainly remains one of the biggest names in the squad, and will likely start every game, but he doesn’t fill me (or anyone) with confidence, because he has simply failed to deliver on the international stage so many times. Debate is ongoing at the moment about whether he is actually that good any more, and whilst I don’t think you could say he’s past it, he certainly has seemed more inclined to spray long balls around, rather than pick up the ball and drive forwards himself as we used to see. Whether he’s past his best or not, if we want to progress, we need him to be playing well.

Frank Lampard

Currently the situation regarding his thigh injury is unclear. Despite who he is, it would be a blow for England if he was declared unfit for the tournament (not least because Henderson would be his replacement). The consensus seems to be that he would sit deep alongside Scott Parker in a midfield 3, and to be fair he has been doing that fairly well of late. Of course, that would mean the ancient Lampard-Gerrard conundrum rears its boring head once again, but maybe the deployment of Fwank in a role further back would ease that. If he’s injured, we’re seriously light of options in the middle.

Scott Parker

A guaranteed starter. Parker has suddenly found himself an integral part of the England team despite not getting a look-in for years. I haven’t loved him at Tottenham (naturally); I often think that if he were not English he would be seen less as a ‘40s throw-back Battle of Britain fighter pilot type, and more of a Nigel de Jong thug type. His vision on the ball is about as limited as an Alan Shearer tactical analysis, but that’s OK because he doesn’t need to be the one playing the defence-splitting pass, he needs to be the one making sneaky fouls before midfielders can bring forwards into play. This is something he does well.

James Milner

Milner seems to have been around for ages (in fact, according to Wikipedia, he made his England debut in 2009). He is an asset in tournament football because of his versatility: he is alright if nothing special on either wing; alright if nothing special in an attacking position in the middle; alright if nothing special as an emergency full back. Useful guy to have around, but probably (injury to Lampard permitting) won’t start.

Stewart Downing

Meh. Downing has provided the only properly controversial decision of Hodgson’s reign so far: most people looked at his stats (zero league goals, zero league assists) and decreed that he is rubbish. Personally, I think that the assists thing is slightly off: he was largely feeding the ball to Andy Carroll, who spent the first 95% of the season doing his best impression of a donkey who has been kept down a year in school. If Downing had been assisting a more capable striker, his stats would have improved slightly. That aside, watching him play tells you more than statistics ever could: he is a bog-standard, unexciting winger, with a skill level typical of most of England’s second string. Meh. Meh. Meh.

Theo Walcott

Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I remain a fan. His return of 8 goals and 11 assists this season has been decent, if not remarkable, and he has that ability to finish instinctively, provided he doesn’t have any time to think about what he’s going to do. He will probably start, and if nothing else the knowledge of what his pace can do to teams will mean they can flood forward less freely. It is frustrating when he tackles himself, but he also poses a genuine threat and, without Rooney starting, we need all of those we can get.

Ashley Young

Young is one of those players who I never really thought anything of, until he moved to United and suddenly seemed incredibly dangerous even though he’s actually nothing that special (another example would be Valencia). Could start ahead of Downing, but then we will have two very fast wingers with arguable end product starting. To be fair to him, he’s scored in his last 4 England games so he must be doing something right, but I just don’t see him having a big impact. Call it a hunch.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Clearly there’s something to the Ox. He comes on against Norway and almost sets up a goal with his very first touch, in what was an otherwise dull game. He’s one of those rare players that every time he’s on the ball, there’s a certain expectation that he’s going to do something with it. For this reason, I hope he makes more than a few conciliatory cameos in this tournament. If we’re drawing with France, say, I’d love to see him come on with 70 minutes gone and really get a chance. Having said that, I am well aware that it is somewhat alarming that so much vague hope rests on his admittedly burly shoulders. I fully supported Wenger’s decision (he’ll be glad to hear) to use the Ox sparingly throughout this season. Look what a full season did to Jack Wilshere (how much brighter would the midfielders section look with him in it?) I hope that the pressure of a country that has only really seen him play a bit-part so far doesn’t affect him, when and if he gets a decent shot. I’d like to see more Michael Owen in ’98 than Theo Walcott in ’06.

So there you have it, the cream of English midfielders. If it looks a bit more like semi-skimmed, gone-off milk, then blame the FA. Or grass-roots football. Or Paul Scholes. The fact is , a starting 5 (for the first 2 games) of Walcott, Parker, Lampard, Gerrard, Young, is decent and arguably could progress from the group. The problem is that Lampard might be out, and substitutions will need to made. That’s where Downing, Milner, and maybe even Henderson(!) come in and start to make everything look a bit bland. Generally, it takes a whole squad to do well in these tournaments, and the midfield is somewhere where we’re likely to come up short.

Tomorrow I’ll return to consider the final piece in the jigsaw, the forwards. Until then.

                                         This beige square sums up my thoughts on Stewart Downing