Rooney to start!

I just wanted to be the first one to post it. I see that Rooney is supposed to start vs. Sweden. Are we excited or what?

No, it’s a pity. I wanted to see Rooney partnered with Crouch for a good hour or so. The gentle giant looked a completely different player with an inside-forward providing better link play and keeping off his centre-forward lines to run.

If we learned anything from the Paraguay game it was that Owen and Crouch were never an ideal combination. Sure, England’s difficulties in the high temperatures in the second half last Saturday week disguised the South American’s ridiculously conservative approach in needing to score at least once to avoid defeat. But we shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that everything was more than okay before Owen was substituted, regardless to whether Crouch had all four opposing defenders closing in on him instead of looking for an equalizer.

The only two #9 centre-forwards (in theory, not the 2006 official squad numbers) taken by Sven to Germany kept taking each other’s space and they probably aren’t as ideal a pair as some may had hoped after Jamaica’s day out at Old Trafford. The lack of an early goal against Trinidad & Tobago meant that at least on of the (#10) inside-forwards had to dig us out of trouble: Roonaldo (with the help of Mr Lennon).

Questions do however have to be asked as to whether Walcott was the second choice inside forward, rather than the surviving Premier League player in his forties, Teddy Sherringham. Paul Robinson was only behind the sticks a year ago because Ericsson wouldn’t pick a then 39-year-old with a vast England and European club pedigree in Nigel Martyn.

But if Rooney plays straight from the start against the Swedes with Crouch, it may well give both Owen and Walcott the chance to somewhat justify not taking either a Darren Bent or a Jermaine Defoe.

Indeed, if Phil Neville had stayed at Old Trafford, and had therefore had been given the chance to impress in the anchor role, instead of Carragher, would taking five full-time attackers have been an issue? I’m not suggesting Jamie would have been one of the two players to make way, but Sol Campbell and Wayne Bridge may well have been.