Sweden v England - What Have We Learnt?

(Courtesy of Beacon Radio - flickr)

Every friendly is described as a ‘learning experience’ so I thought that I would find out what exactly it is that we have learnt from this game.

Positives

The kids are alright: Although it is extremely English to get over-excited about youth talent we saw a bit of what could be the future last night. Raheem Stirling was extremely busy out on the right wing, if not completely effective, and gave Martin Olsson and then Behrang Safari quite a bit to think about. His raw pace is always a threat but, as proven by many failed England hopefuls, pace on its own is not enough. As he has displayed on several occasions this season with Liverpool Sterling has got more than just pace and, at just 17 years old, has got a lot of time to develop as a football player.

We also seem to forget, perhaps because he has been around for a while already, that Danny Welbeck is still only 21. But from his 13 appearances (only 7 of them from the start) he has already scored 4 times for the national team and his goal last night was proof that he has the presence of mind to get into good positions and the ability to finish them off.

Steven Caulker got a decent 74 minutes under his belt on his first cap and showed, in the space of just 10 minutes, that he is one to watch out for. First knocking in the goal which put England 2-1 up and then more importantly from a defender’s point of view, providing a vital block to stop Ibrahimovic getting his second of the night just before half time.

Service: England’s strikers can have no complaints about the delivery they are receiving if last night is anything to go by. Both of England’s goals were all about the crosses that were put in. First Ashley Young, for whom we all know delivery is a speciality, put in a cross of such precision that neither defender nor goalkeeper wanted to touch it, leaving Danny Welbeck to find the back of the net at the back post. Then only 3 minutes later Steven Gerrard whipped in a free kick to find Steven Caulker back post. Some reports have it down that the defending was poor, perhaps to let Caulker get to the ball, but as for cutting out the cross any defender would have been hard pressed to make contact with that cross without knocking it into  his own goal.

There is talent to be found outside the ‘usual suspects': Even with some of the bigger stars missing last night 7 of the starters came from teams currently in the top four and the other four from Liverpool and Tottenham, which is not a great advert for the diversity of talent in the English league. However, when you take into account that only 5 of those could really be called regular starters we can take solace from the fact that the boys who got their first caps and those who don’t play that often for their country did a good job against a relatively full strength Sweden side. I’m thinking of players like Leon Osman, who was one of the best players on the pitch last night, both in his passing and more direct attacking threat. Also Leighton Baines, about whom much has been made in the press, made a good case for taking over from Ashley Cole sooner rather than later. As detailed previously Caulker, Welbeck and Stirling all looked very promising too. It is therefore nice to see that when our first eleven is not available, and with injuries it rarely is, there are plenty of players who are willing and able to deputise.

Negatives

World Class: The only member of the opposition who was world class last night was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as proven by scoring 4 goals including one of the best goals ever scored. While we didn’t have our best team out it is worrying that a team with only one world class player can knock four goals past us. If and when we come up against opposition with 4 or 5 world class players; Spain, Argentina, Brazil or Germany for example, we are really going to struggle. The unfortunate reality is we are probably just about in the top 10 teams in the world but probably not in the best 8, so when it comes to Brazil 2014 and we expect to make it to the quarter-finals this is possibly a touch ambitious, depending on the draw we are given of course. And it is purely for the reason of being unable to deal with class. While we do have some world class players of our own we cannot gel them together like so many other nations do. Sweden won last night because of a one man show, but it is rare to see some of the best teams in the world win because of a solo performance, they play like a team. This is what England have been missing for a long time, the ability to make the whole better than, or even as good as, the sum of its parts.