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/li> 13 comments I hear that the player who is catching the eye on the England training ground is Danny Welbeck. International football is about breaking through, growing into it and then your best form comes when you are feeling at home. Danny is taking baby steps towards that and a giant stride will come with his first tournament goal. It seems a little like he is looking over his shoulder, waiting to see where Wayne Rooney will come in next time. Get that out of your mind, Danny. Play so well against Sweden that Rooney is playing with you, not instead of you. Caught the eye: England's Danny Welbeck STOP IBRA Zlatan Ibrahimovic is an enigma. Will we get the football superstar who has been on a tour of Europe's powerhouse clubs? Or the player who goes through the motions and will offer no threat to England? I'm backing our two centre backs and the shield in front, consisting of Parker and Gerrard. Enigma: Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic NO

/li> 6 comments I wrote on Friday how much I was hoping Danny Welbeck would score and feel at home. He looked at home on Friday night, didn't he? His goal was quality and he should have his Manchester United pal Wayne Rooney alongside him next time. Comfort zone: Danny Welbeck (right) grabbed the winner and looked right at home Walcott's impact I've been feeling sorry for Theo Walcott, but he didn't feel sorry for himself. He was aggressive and direct and he made such a difference. He's had to take his place in the pecking order and he's the young player everyone wants to criticise. I hope this impact performance gives him belief.  Take that: Theo Walcott bangs home the second goal to put England level Hard night's work Sweden needed to win to stay in the tournament and they weren't going to go down without a fight. It was like a Premier League game. They didn't keep the ball well enough again and invited

/li> 8 comments ROONEY’S RETURN The two central midfielders will be pleased to see Wayne Rooney back. You can lend him the ball and trust you will get it back. I hope he doesn’t get too tense. People say he plays better angry but I don’t agree. He must not put too much pressure on himself. He should come in and enjoy himself. The Ukraine team will fear him but they will try to expose his weakness and wind him up. He doesn’t need to prove anything, although I expect him to struggle for fitness having missed so much football. Relaxed: Wayne Rooney at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk on Monday STAY YOUNG Ashley Young hasn’t really got going yet but I’d stick with him - and in his favourite position, wide on the left and cutting in on to his favoured right foot. He will enjoy having Wayne Rooney back and will link up with him. His pre-tournament form suggests he has a performance in him and this might be it. At ease: Ashley Young (centre) jokes around with Jermain

/li> 12 comments The stand-out performer was the magnificent Steven Gerrard. It makes you wonder, with all the debate there has been about the captaincy, why it wasn’t given to him years ago. He is thriving with the responsibility, playing with confidence and flair and reproducing his club form for his country. He gave his international form ‘6 or 7 out of 10’ before the tournament, but this was much higher. He’s a humble man, a fabulous footballer and now I’m glad people are getting to see how good he is. Inspiration: Gerrard has been outstanding for England   No ordinary Jo I played against Joleon Lescott when he was at Wolves: the question then was ‘is he mobile enough’. He’s come a long way since. He has a title medal for Manchester City and now he has been England’s best defender in the tournament. He reacted quickly to danger on Tuesday night and, while he might yet be caught out by quick movement, he plays with great heart and desire. He is likely t

/li> 61 comments Every England player sang the National Anthem before victory against Ukraine. All the way along the line, every one of them. Can you remember the last time that happened? Something has changed. It may be the influence of an English manager, Roy Hodgson, after 11 years under the direction of Sven Goran Eriksson, a Swede, and the Italian Fabio Capello, when being English did not seem to count for much. It looks to me like Roy has got into their heads and reminded the players that playing for their country means something. Victorious, happy and glorious: (from left) John Terry, Scott Parker, Glen Johnson, Joe Hart and captain Steven Gerrard look in harmony as they sing the National Anthem before beating Ukraine You might ask what difference does singing the anthem make. It won’t help England keep the ball better or help them to advance further in this thoroughly enjoyable tournament. England could go out on Sunday, after all, when they face the danger

/li> 30 comments This is a 50-50 game. Both teams came to the competition with low expectations, but England are in slightly better shape - all fit and free of bans. I didn't expect much from Wayne Rooney against Ukraine, but I'm expecting more here. He should be fitter, sharper and with a better touch. Rooney needs to make his mark, England can't keep relying on Steven Gerrard. Wayne's world: England can't keep relying on Gerrard   Leaving a big hole You want your big players fit for these games and Italy will miss Giorgio Chiellini. Their best defender, he's old-school Italian with all the tricks and plays for Juventus, who went the whole Serie A season unbeaten as Italy's Invincibles. He's a huge loss for them and his absence is a mighty boost for England. Italy are without their main defensive warrior. Let's see how they cope without him. Formation dancing I do like my formations and it's been fascinating

/li> 40 comments I couldn’t get off the phone on Sunday night with people calling, saying: ‘Where’s our Pirlo, why can’t we play like Pirlo, why can’t we get near him?’ It was one of the best midfield performances I have ever seen. But we have our own version, he is just recovering from injury and we must hope he gets well soon. He is Jack Wilshere of Arsenal. Untouchable: Andre Pirlo ran rings round England He can pass like that, in the quarterback position, in a central midfield three. But it has to be a three. This competition showed you can’t play two midfielders, especially when the opponents have three in there. England asked too much of Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker. I wrote it after the first game and it didn’t change. Last night, Parker came off exhausted and Gerrard suffered cramp. They had too much to do. Ineffective: Rooney was tired out from chasing after Pirlo Tired Rooney You might ask why Wayne Rooney looked so tired, but he was chasing shadow

/li> 65 comments My friend said to me the other day that Mario Balotelli reminded him of a mixture of Eric Cantona's swagger and Cristiano Ronaldo's power and skill. He went as far as to air the point on the social networking site Twitter. If I were on Twitter too (and I'm not), I would have used my 140 characters to offer a one-word response. Nonsense. Balotelli is like a volcano waiting to erupt, a bubbling cauldron of trouble with a giant risk of letting you down. Looking for a fight: Balotelli is a talent, but also trouble   In the stampede to salute his dazzling performance for Italy against Germany, we are forgetting that 83 days ago he was sent off for Manchester City at Arsenal and betrayed his team-mates with an outrageous act of petulance. If Manchester United had gone about their business in their normal professional manner, that would have been the single most significant moment that cost Manchester City the title. Instead, he is

/li> 29 comments I don't know if Arsene Wenger is suffering from sitting in the pundits’ chair. It does happen. Working for Eurosport, Wenger said that Spain had ‘betrayed their philosophy and turned into something more negative’.  Has he been watching the same team as the rest of us?  When you watch Spain play football of such beauty and control, you have to admire their mastery of the ball. I thought Wenger would understand that better than anyone with the way his Arsenal team try to play. Main man: Andres Iniesta was influential in Spain's Euro 2012 success We can rave about Spain’s passing but it is the touch to set up a pass. You can press them, get after them, try to close them down and it seems the opponent almost gets there. Then the next opponent almost gets there and then, before you know it, they are into your back four. It reminds me of what it was like to play against Paul Scholes, who, I am convinced, would not have looked out of place in this

/li> 0 shares 4 comments Running with the best: Usain Bolt seeking a top doctor There's not much I have in common with Usain Bolt. He's certainly a little quicker than I was at my peak. But we shared the same doctor when it came to turning to someone in need of urgent repair. When I was a Liverpool player, I regularly used the tricks and skills of Doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt to rescue me from another injury. Now Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time, is visiting his Munich clinic to try and be fit for the London Olympics, which start in 18 days. I've read in these pages about Muller-Wolhfahrt's methods being described by a senior figure within the US Anti-Doping Agency as 'Frankensteintype experiments'. I'm not sure what that means, although with me he would use fluid taken from the comb on the head of a hen to lubricate a knee joint that had been eroded by a succession of injuries. He would tell me that it was like 

/li> 17 comments Andy Carroll has a lot to offer. He's 23 and reminded us when he played for England against Sweden what he can do when he is on top of his game. Get the quality into the box and he will score. So why does it seem that Liverpool want to sell him now, just when it looked as if he had turned the corner? The problem for Carroll is that the new manager, Brendan Rodgers, plays with one up and that one player will be Luis Suarez. Glimpses: Andy Carroll showed his class in the FA Cup final and at Euro 2012 So Carroll has a choice: does he accept his role as the understudy and stay and fight for his place, or does he accept he is surplus to requirements and move away? If Liverpool want to move him on, he’s a fantastic loan. He’s a good player. No wonder West Ham are interested in that temporary deal.  West Ham were very direct at times last season in their promotion campaign and Carroll is a serious threat in the air. He can lead the line, play up

/li> 12 comments In 2004, when the  pre-match handshake ritual was introduced in England, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: ‘It’s not a handshake that says everybody loves everybody else. 'It’s a handshake that says, “Whatever c**p’s gone on before now and whatever c**p will go on after this game is over, for the next 90 minutes, let’s just play a game of football”.’ I’ve never understood it. What does it achieve? Spat: Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra almost came to blows before a Premier League match at Old Trafford after the latter accused the former of racism Recently, we’ve had clubs given permission not to shake hands because of bad feeling and players refusing to do it. TV advertising breaks are scheduled around the handshake, in case there is a story not to be missed. How did it get to this? Handshakes should be reserved for the captains and officials before the toss and as a spontaneous gesture when the contest is over. The rest of it i

/li> 0 shares 7 comments Robin van Persie joining Manchester United is great for Sir Alex Ferguson and great for the title race. If he had signed for Manchester City it would have felt like game over before the season had even started. Instead, Sir Alex has made a statement that he wants his title back and he now has the strike force to make that possible. New boy: Van Persie was incredible last season Here he is: Robin van Persie arrives for his medical When United won the treble in 1999, they had four excellent strikers in Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Sir Alex thinks they are getting close to that quality again with Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck but I’d argue they offer more variety. Only time will tell if they are better. Most importantly, signing Van Persie is a statement that United are still a force to be reckoned with. We were all expecting City to improve their squad this

/li> 0 shares 5 comments Every season I pick my 10 to follow. They are not all new signings, but they are all players I am looking forward to seeing when the season gets underway this weekend. And these are my picks for this campaign... keep an eye out for how they perform. 1 Joe Allen, Liverpool A modern midfielder who doesn’t go to ground in the tackle but stays on his feet. He is a superb reader of the play, intercepts the ball and has the annoying habit of passing to a team-mate. The obvious question is: can he cope with moving to Liverpool from Swansea? Joe has so much in his favour, with a manager who obviously loves him and the chance to play alongside Steven Gerrard. That midfield three of Gerrard, Lucas Leiva and Allen looks to be dripping with quality. Getting his man: Brendan Rodgers brought Joe Allen (right) to Anfield 2 Eden Hazard, Chelsea I sat with Joe Cole last season and asked him about Hazard. ‘Jamie, this boy is so good, he can become the