England issues for France match - Jamie Redknapp
England’s key player is Ashley Young. Our two wide players will be running marathons trying to track back and support the defence and the two midfielders, Scott Parker and Steven Gerrard, will have to be disciplined.
England will try to mirror Chelsea’s performance against Bayern Munich, so it’s crucial for Young to find pockets of space at the other end. He has had mixed success in that ‘Rooney role’ and finds it harder when the opposition play a midfield three, as France will, with a holding player to close the space.
It’s a specialist’s position; when the ball comes your way, you have to decide whether to pop it off or control, turn and run. He’s quick but his natural game is not playing with his back to goal.
The far left Cover: James Milner will have to be on his gameFrance’s strong point is their left side of Patrice Evra and Franck Ribery.
They will come down that side regularly and James Milner will have an important role in front of Glen Johnson to act as cover.
England must not allow overlaps and Milner needs to stay alert and switched on. It is one of the reasons why I’m sure Roy Hodgson will go for him ahead of the speed of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Remember to attack!I hope England are progressive and don’t just sit in and defend. We need to cause France a problem too and get at their back four.
Against Estonia last week, France looked like a team enjoying their football.
If England go behind in that heat, it will be a difficult task. An early England goal would make it very interesting.
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