My thoughts on England vs Uruguay

Rooney scores the winner against Ukraine

At the end of this evening’s game, England could either be leaving Brazil prematurely or be in pole position for a place in the knockout stage. The nature of this game is reminiscent of our previous tournament clashes with Slovenia (2010 World Cup) and Ukraine (2012 European Championships) in the sense that defeat would result in elimination. If we came through both the aforementioned tests in somewhat lacklustre circumstances, then tonight we have the chance to achieve the desired result and send a message to the other nations through our performance. There are certain aspects of this game that could be essential to our success in Sao Paulo tonight. These aspects are as follows:

How we exploit an unfamiliar Uruguayan defence

How we apply ourselves when not in possession

How we extinguish Uruguay’s attacking threat (namely Luis Suarez)

Starting with the Uruguayan back line, they will be missing the dynamic Benfica full back Maxi Pereira and their ageing captain Diego Lugano. There are many options open to manager Oscar Tabarez, with the likes of Jorge Fucile, Sebastian Coates and Alvaro Pereira pushing for starts. Fucile only played two games all season for Porto (one of which was for the reserves) so his chances of starting are slim, with this in mind they should start with:

RB - Martin Caceres (Not an unfamiliar position for Caceres, having played there for Juventus and Sevilla)

CB - Sebastian Coates (Only played six times for Nacional following injury last season)

CB - Diego Godin

LB - Alvaro Pereira (Loaned out to Sao Paulo after being used sparingly at Inter)

Coates

If Roy plays Wayne Rooney centrally (As is being reported) he could have a field day up against Coates who failed to impress in his eleven games for Liverpool. The knee injury which kept him out of the majority of last season could see him be a tad ring rusty, which England must take advantage of. Both fullbacks aren’t lacking in pace, but their over exuberance to get forward could leave space in behind for Sterling and Welbeck to exploit, hopefully it will enable Baines and Johnson to be more willing to overlap than they were against Italy.

Gerrard must be more aggressive tonight

Our performance against Italy was one of the most confident and impressive performances I had witnessed in my time as an England supporter, however what has been noted by many pundits was our incapability to win the ball back when the Italians had possession. We allowed the Italian midfielders to advance far too easily into our half, putting unnecessary pressure on our back four. Gerrard and Henderson must do more to break up the play and stop the flow of service from the Uruguayan midfielders to Suarez and Cavani.  

Suarez vs Cahill

Fully fit or not, Luis Suarez will be Uruguay’s major threat this evening. The Liverpool forward scored twice last season against an Everton defence containing Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines, however he failed to score home and away against a Chelsea side that had Gary Cahill at the heart of its defence. Cahill and the Liverpool players in the squad should be able to give an insight in how to keep the forward quiet, for me if we do keep his time on the ball down to a minimum, we should win the game.  

Finally, COME ON ENGLAND.