Depleted Eng aim to impress
It was meant to be an opportunity to let England's young lions roam free to demonstrate how they may just be equipped to inject fear into the two best teams in world football.
Instead, the build-up to the friendlies against Germany and Brazil at Wembley has been accompanied in the English media by mutterings of "farce" and "embarrassment" amid the plethora of withdrawals from Gareth Southgate's squad.
The loss of at least five players who would surely have launched this brave new world in his starting XI on Friday has wholly scuppered his plans to give potential 'A teamers' a taste of the quality they will face in Russia next year.
It will be far removed from the opposition they ground down in an unbeaten, if uninspiring, qualifying campaign.
Southgate's captain Harry Kane and thrusting young Tottenham Hotspur team mate Harry Winks withdrew on Monday while Manchester City's Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph, both in great form, pulled out along with Liverpool's Jordan Henderson the next day.
The squad had lost its potential talisman in Spurs' Dele Alli while the likes of Liverpool's Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne and Arsenal's Danny Welbeck were among a dozen potential candidates sidelined by injury.
Not that any player can afford to think that way. There may be five uncapped squad members in total but as Tottenham's Eric Dier, now the key figure in a depleted midfield, said: "We have to challenge ourselves - that's the right mentality."
He was asked whether there was a potential for England's second-stringers to end up being embarrassed by both their old fierce rivals Germany and the quality of the world's second-ranked side Brazil.
"I don't really see it as a risk," shrugged Dier. "If we get embarrassed then there is a lot more to work on. If we don't, we are on the right path. If we want to be prepared for the biggest sporting events in the world we have to prepare by facing the best."
However, for Southgate, the only upside could only come if his fledgling reserves can somehow fashion a victory over their greatest continental rivals on Friday.
Comments