Fabio Capello, the England manager, is expecting a Andorra to adopt a defensive-minded approach in tomorrow night’s World Cup qualifying match at Wembley.
The Italian, who has won all six qualifying matches since taking charge, has urged his players to push for the early goal, in order to force the Andorrans to chase the game, rather than allowing them to put ten players behind the ball.
“I saw their game against Belarus and they put ten players just in front of the box, waiting, waiting, waiting,” Capello said. “It’s not easy. But if we score early it will be an easy game.
“We have to attack. Andorra will be waiting for us in front of their box with ten players defending.”
Capello confirmed he is considering resting those players who are a booking away from suspension, but has not yet decided whether Gary Neville will start at right back instead of Glen Johnson, who would miss the clash against Croatia should he be booked.
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He also refused to confirm whether David Beckham, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steven Gerrard or Theo Walcott would start on the right of midfield, but added: “Walcott will be very important because we have to play to attack and the wide position is very important.
“I’ve spoken to him and he trained very well. He needs to play to recover his best condition.”
The Italian is satisfied with the qualifying campaign so far, during which England have won all six games.
“I’ve learnt a lot,” he added. “The players have learnt lot too about my system, what I want, what I want them to do in games and the different styles we play. I’m very happy because I can see in training the players are very happy. It’s important.
“It’s not like work but happy training.”
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John Terry, the England captain, said he wanted to reward those England fans who are able to make it to Wembley despite the travel difficulties posed by the Tube strike.
“We had 1,500 fans going all the way to Kazakhstan so we know we are always going to get great support from the England fans but maybe tomorrow night is a chance to pay them back for all the hard work they give us with a good win,” he said.
“We owe it to ourselves to do it. None of us having been in this position before and it would be be great to end the season on a high. We had a good training session today. Everyone was fit and sharp and there are no new injury concerns.”
Terry admitted England are expected to dominate the match and he and his fellow defenders will need to keep their focus. “Maybe it is a difficult game for a defender. Me and Matt [Matthew Upson] need to keep our concentration and not have too many touches on the ball. We need to move the ball really quickly and make it difficult for them.”
England are closing in on qualification for next year’s World Cup finals, but Terry warns that the team should not be complacent.
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“I still think we have got improvements to make to the team, individually and collectively,” he added. “At the moment we are going in the right direction and hopefully, if we do qualify, we can keep improving next year.”