Kait Borsay profiles the new members of the England squad and rates the displays of those who played.
Kait Borsay profiles the newest members of the England squad and rates the performances of those who played at Wembley
The England team were looking much more youthful in last night's friendly against France; the average age of the squad was just over 25. Compare this with the side that went to South Africa, which as England's oldest squad had an average age of just under 29 and Fabio Capello seems to be finally doing what he's been threatening to do for so long: giving a taste of England's future.
But was the introduction of so many inexperienced senior international players a useful exercise? Kait Borsay profiles the newest members of the England squad and rates the performances of those who played at Wembley.
Kieran Gibbs
From a family of Arsenal supporters the left-back actually began his footballing career at Wimbledon as a midfielder and left winger. When Wimbledon disbanded in 2004 he moved to Arsenal where he signed as a professional. After a loan spell at Norwich in 2008 he rejoined Arsenal, and got his chance at a run of games at first team level in April 2009 when Gael Clichy became injured. With Clichy still out, he started the new season a fixture in the first team, but devastatingly, just as he was starting to show great promise he broke his metatarsal in November 2009.
Although injury has again hampered him this season Arsene Wenger has said Gibbs will get several games and mooted a move back to the player's old stomping ground in midfield. Gibbs lists Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright as his football heroes - not forgetting a throwback to his days at Wimbledon with a mention for Dean Holdsworth. He's learning Spanish and has a twin brother, Jayden, who plays in midfield for Guildford City F.C.
The Game: I think we can glean that the 21-year old is not fully match fit, and this would make sense bearing in mind the injuries he's had and the so far lack of first team action for his club. Yes he was caught out with France's second goal but he had a lot to do in the game. Our poor performance in midfield left little option but for the defence to mop up as much as they could - and I don't think Gibbs did a bad job at all. Won't threaten Ashley Cole's place for a good few years to come though.
Andy Carroll
For all the new wave of disciplined, non-drinking, modern professional young footballers that are breaking through into the England senior squad Andy Carroll's antics off the field seem to have caused enough headlines for the lot of them.
There's no doubting his ability though, and Capello and co think so too - enough to break with the usual protocol of sending any player unfit to train home 36 hours before a friendly (Carroll had a groin injury ahead of this fixture). Instead it was decided to see how he would fare in the time left before the game.
The 21-year old has had a blistering time for Newcastle so far this season, scoring seven goals. But as Capello so bluntly put it on Tuesday 'Carroll needs to improve in his private life' before disclosing that he had considered picking Carroll for earlier games, but after advice from Stuart Pearce and the FA, had gone against the decision.
Born in Gateshead, the striker joined Newcastle at the age of nine after playing football for the local side where Paul Gascoigne had been developed. He had spurned his family's wishes for him to join Sunderland after deciding that he wanted to emulate Alan Shearer.
He played a huge role in Newcastle's promotion to the Premier League this season, scoring 17 times in 31 league games. After limited appearances for the England U19 and U21 teams, this is Carroll's first senior international cap.
The Game: Undoubtedly one of the few positives we can take from the game. A powerful runner and was very good on his feet for someone 6ft 3ins tall and built in the more traditional England centre forward mould. It's been a while since I've seen an England player put his head to good use quite so much as he did against the French, and as a lone up front he coped well, albeit without much support.
Capello was delighted, saying after the game: "He is a fighter, but with quality, a really good player." When asked if Carroll had an England future and would feature in the next squad, Capello replied "absolutely yes" on both counts.
"He is one of the most interesting young players," he added. "Not only in England but in Europe."
After that, don't go out and celebrate just yet Andy, please.
Jordan Henderson
Unlike some of the debutants for this game the midfielder has a significant number of Premier League games under his belt - he has made almost fifty appearances for Sunderland in the top flight. He is a Black Cat through and through having been at the club since he was seven. He has already attracted interest from the likes of Manchester United so quite how long he stays a Sunderland player remains open to debate.
He is teetotal, has never smoked and admits he feels "a little bit boring". His performance against Chelsea has already got folk excited about his international prospects - surprisingly though he had only notched up seven appearances from the U19s to the U21s before yesterday's friendly. He is excellent on the ball, has all the vision a good playmaker should need and isn't afraid to work hard. Has yet to truly realise his goalscoring abilities.
The Game: To be honest he just looked a little bit lost - surprising for someone with so many big game experiences to his name. He had a few good touches at the start of the game and was happy to get in the mix when England finally piled forward for the last fifteen minutes. Following a game - even after such a good one at Chelsea - the 20 year-old likes to go home and watch the highlights on television. No crazy nights out, no wild celebrations. I'm not sure how much he'll have enjoyed watching this one though.
Jay Bothroyd
At the age of twenty-eight Bothroyd may not be as young as the rest of our debutants, but he earned his international call up after starting this season for Championship side Cardiff City in sparkling form. He's netted fifteen goals in sixteen games in all competitions.
The striker's early career was full of promise but a moment of "stupidity" and "petulance" whilst playing for the Arsenal youth team has cost him dear. At seventeen, and playing in the final of the 2000 Premier League Cup against West Ham, he was substituted by Don Howe at the break and threw his shirt onto the floor when it was time to go. Liam Brady told him the club had let him go.
There followed an indifferent eight years at Coventry, Perugia, Blackburn, Charlton and Wolves, before he made arguably one of the best decisions of his career and moved to Cardiff. He is left-footed, strong and like Carroll, traditional in his England centre forward build and height (6ft 2ins).
The Game: Bothroyd came on for Carroll with twenty minutes left to go and despite showing good presence and a bit of strength up front I don't think we really learned anything about him. I appreciate Capello calling up players based on form but just what was Bothroyd's substitute appearance in the game meant to show? That there's a shortcoming of attacking talent amongst our national set up? Perhaps.
Chris Smalling
Smalling's rise from non-League football to the Premier League champions in less than two years should appeal to the fairytale side of us all. Rather than opt for the academy route (Smalling did try life at Millwall when he was 12 but found the travelling back to his home in Chatham, Kent too much) he stayed at school, achieving good grades right the way up to his A-Levels.
At 16, he joined non-League local club Maidstone (where his nickname 'Shaft' was borne out of the magnificent Afro he had at the time) and then at 17, the defender was called up for England Schoolboys. This brought attention from some of the major clubs and he eventually joined Fulham in 2008.
The player, who will celebrate his 21st birthday in just a few days' time was sold to Manchester United for £10 million at the beginning of this year but didn't actually make the move north until this summer. He's made limited appearances for United so far but his height (he's 6ft 4ins) and speed make him a very enticing prospect. He can play anywhere across the back four but it is thought United are developing Smalling in his best position, central defence.
Very much one for the future, it would be unfair to judge Smalling on the limited chances he's had to prove himself. It's refreshing to hear though, that as a teenager he even held down a waiter's job in a local hotel in Kent - and as his non-appearance in the game yesterday shows - we should be quick to point out that at this moment in his career he's still very much on the aperitifs.
Jack Wilshere
Ok, so he didn't make the game after picking up an injury in Tuesday's training session but this guy is definitely worth a mention. He will feature in England's future squads, and I really don't think that's up for debate.
A product of the Arsenal academy it counts for something when in a side that invests so heavily in youth, you trump your team-mates by becoming their side's youngest league player (he was 16 years and 256 days). The midfielder can also count himself as one of only five sixteen year-olds ever to have played in the UEFA Champions League. Early milestones are a definite trend in Wilshere's career, since 2006 England have always played him in an age group above his years. A month after his sixteenth birthday he scored his first competitive goal for Arsenal in their 6-0 goal-rout against Sheffield United.
Kevin Blackwell, the United manager at the time said: "He was not fazed by being up against senior players, not fazed by a 60,000 crowd and not fazed by constantly finding the ball at his feet."
Like Steven Gerrard, Wilshere played against his older brother and his older mates from a very young age. So he learnt to handle himself physically and mentally. During his loan spell at Bolton last season he impressed manager Owen Coyle.
"Even though he's only eighteen, he's very much a man," he said. "He's a total footballer. He can play wide, he can play in the middle or he can play as a second striker. Everything he does oozes class"
He is a joy to watch and when describing what happens during a match Wilshere says: "I see little pictures of where everybody is and have a fair idea of what's going to happen when I get the ball."
There's no doubt he's a talent, and having been called up to the England squad for the first time in August this year, let's hope it's not too long before we see him again.
The synopsis:
The French were totally in sync with each other, experienced or not, the players gelled together and passed with an ease that looked so thoroughly classy. It seems Laurent Blanc's side have achieved everything Capello hopes to do with the England team. The difference is Blanc has done an almost immediate rebuilding job after France's disastrous World Cup, introducing a younger team for the future and not being afraid to play them on a consistent basis.
In contrast, England didn't keep possession, couldn't stay on the ball and just looked like a bag of jigsaw pieces from a thousand different puzzles.
It's great to see some new faces in the England team, had we not had injuries to some of our more experienced players would we have seen so many? Probably not.
Were the youthful selections in tonight's team then just a smoke screen for an England side that still needs an awful lot of work?
"I'm optimistic for the future of the England national team - when all the players are fit we have a really good team, but it's important the young players get experience on days like today," said Capello after the game.
"Every time in the past I have read 'you have to put young players in, you have to do it', and now I have put young players in the team and we are talking about the result."
A case of 'I told you so' then from the England manager? He continued...
"You can't compare this team with France, the inexperience is far greater in our side than in theirs."
Rubbish. England may have had more debutants (three to France's one) but the average age of their squad was in fact a little older than the French. Most importantly: of the sixteen players that featured for both sides the English had a higher total number of caps. Not a huge amount more I'll be honest (after the game England had 343 caps to France's 320). But this is hardly a 'far greater' amount of 'inexperience'.
I sat amongst the Wembley boos at the end of last night's game and I had to question the real value that such an atmosphere has on a young player. The reaction of some of the England fans was, well, anything but 'friendly'. Maybe it's time for Capello to dig that drawing board out again.
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