Arise Sir Harry, Problems Solved? Not Quite.

With little more than four months to go until England take on France at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, it is hard to recall the last time the national team went into a major tournament with so much uncertainty surrounding it. No manager, no captain, most influential player suspended for the first two games, you get the picture. Whilst Fabio Capello's resignation this week has been greeted with wide spread jubilation from all corners, little has been made of the turmoil and confusion that it has left the England team in. Whilst it is very easy to jump on the Harry Redknapp bandwagon and try and convince everyone that all England's failings under Capello were a result of the the Italians inadequacies and nothing else, few people have attempted to look at the sheer number of important issues that have been left under the darkest of clouds.

Manager

The obvious one to start with and the most important. Capello and all his backroom staff are gone, minus Stuart Pearce (who was forced upon him in the first place anyway), in many ways England have gone back to square one. The friendly against Holland this month would have ideally been used as preparation for Capello to run the rule over a number of players he felt had the potential to make an impact in Poland and Ukraine. Now with Pearce in interim control how does he approach this friendly and England's preparations for the Euro's as a whole? Does he continue with Capello's tactics and approaches and largely stick with the players the Italian had shown a preference for since South Africa? Or does he try himself to put his own stamp on the team even though this may well be the only game he leads England in? Will for example Micah Richards be called up even though Capello has consistently remained unconvinced over his ability and temperament?

Equally if, as is expected, Harry Redknapp takes charge of England for the tournament, whether it be on a full or part time basis, there are still a number of issues to be dealt with. The sooner a deal can be put in place the better for all concerned. The new manager whoever he is will need as much time as possible to look at players in the short space of time available.

A very real problem is how the England squad will be brought together during the build up to that opening clash with France. Whilst the manager would normally be spending the final weeks of the season running the final rule over players he is undecided on (and sweating on the fitness of those guaranteed to go, an injury to Joe Hart for example would present a truly worrying situation and a potential trip down to the championship for a keeper), yet on this occasion Redknapp will be guiding his team through the final stages of the season and quite possibly pushing to win the league. Apart from the physical limitations of doing both jobs, there is also the  mental workload that will be placed upon Redknapp. Having to go from a stressful run in and then head straight into the immense pressure of leading England into a major tournament is hardly a relaxing end to a club season nor a smooth transition into the summer.

Captain

In comparison to some of the other problems faced by England this should not be to great an issue. A captain you imagine will be named for the game against the Netherlands at the end of the month, and then a captain for the Euros will be announced with the preliminary squad come the end of the domestic season. Any of the candidates suggested in the press already will be satisfactory. Joe Hart, Steven Gerrard or Scott Parker would seem to be the favorites and all of these would be met with approval. Indeed this whole captaincy saga should be used as opening to move away from the English obsession with who wears an armband on their shirt and tosses a coin.

Squad

There are a number of issues to be dealt with involving the selection of the England squad that will head east this summer. Firstly Pearce must decide whether to call upon John Terry for the upcoming friendly, if fit, and if he does what effect will this have upon the dynamic in the changing room. He has been placed in an incredibly difficult position by the FA who in their infinite wisdom have ruled that Terry is unfit to lead his country with a charge of racial abuse hanging over him yet he is eligible to represent his country nonetheless. Potential for an unhealthy dressing room must be weighed against how much John Terry brings to the table as a centre back. Personally the best decision for moving forwards and removing this issue is to not select Terry for the squads leading up to and including the Euros. Whilst no English centre backs can claim to be enjoying stellar seasons between them Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Gary Cahil, Phil Jagielka, Michael Dawson, Ledley King, Rio Ferdinand and Joleon Lescott there is more than enough collective ability for the Chelsea captain to be left at home.


One wonders what Pearce's role in all this is? If he is simply keeping the seat warm for 'Arry' should he even be making such big calls like leaving out John Terry and other established names who have not been performing of late such as Walcott, Downing etc to make room for Daniel Sturridge, or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain given that the game against the Netherlands will likely be his only match in charge? 

Style of Play

One of the key criticisms of CapelloTottenham so brilliantly? The main point here is that you imagine England are going to change tactics under Redknapp and to a lesser extent Pearce. But there is precious little time and opportunity for these changes to occur. Equally the first squad the new manager will announce will be the tournament squad, so there will be little opportunity to run the rule over players or to experiment greatly. England seem to have settled on a 4-3-3 formation lately with Rooney flanked by two wingers, yet this has seemed far more fluent and effective when England are asked to counter attack with pace on the wings but at the same time has made them predictable when dominating possession and attempting to break teams down. Best illustrated by the respective performances against Bulgaria and then Wales last Autumn.

Given the shortage of time and opportunities available to experiment with the system it seems reasonably likely that both Pearce and Redknapp will look to avoid wholesale changes to both tactics and personnel.

Rooney

Although this issue has been discussed to a certain degree given that his suspension has long been an issue but an alternative to Rooney needs to be put in place that can secure England at least four points from the first two games. However here too there are issues that remain unresolved. The first point is whether the 'four striker' policy that has long been adopted needs to be adjusted, knowing that one of the forwards will be unavailable for the first two games. The answer to this question is entirely linked to the way in which England will line up. If they plan to play with one forward then perhaps they can  get away with four, however if they look to play with two forwards it could leave them short especially if/when injuries occur. If we assume that England will follow convention and take four strikers then the most likely candidates are Danny Wellbeck, Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe as well as the suspended Rooney. They are the most likely players but at the same time the obvious issue is that there is not a great deal of variety. As stated above it seems probable that England will look to play with one striker flanked by wingers in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 and the strikers listed have experience at leading the line on their own although in the case of Defoe it is not his preferred role.


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