Dortmund planning to rescue MK
Give Gareth Three Lions job NOW – he has already proved himself
Friday’s performance was certainly a big step up from the last qualifying game against Malta.
We still play a little bit slowly at times, a little bit pedestrian and that shirt has to be filled with an overwhelming pride every time a player pulls it on.
Overall though, England maintained their composure, they kept the ball much better than Gordon Strachan’s side, and it was great to see striker Daniel Sturridge on the score sheet alongside Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill. That will do Sturridge’s confidence no harmm at all and, having initially thought that I’d’d like to see Southgate try a Plan B in n this week’s friendly with Spain, I noww hope he does not make too many changes.ges.
Positive
Of course there might be a temptationptation to do that because there will be one or two Premier League managers in his ear asking for their man to be rested d for a friendly.
But after such a positive result lt and performance against Scotland, we should go on and try to keep being unbeaten, building on t hat scoreline and display.
Let’s fashion a team that is hard to get into, where the boys in the squad a arer e champing at the bit for their chance and the main men in the starting XI are at their maximum making sure they don’t get it. That could only be a good thing for Southgate – if he gets the job – and for the nation.
Against Spain, we will be up against a team that is still one of the best four or five in the world, and arguably the very best over the last eight or nine years.
So let’s play at least 80 per cent of the team which played on Friday and let’s see if they can give Spain a run for their money. agreement can be struck at Old Trafford. Mkhitaryan was one of the Bundesliga’s top stars before his switch from Dortmund last summer.
The Armenia playmaker had been expected to deliver the same creative flair he showed as Dortmund’s king of assists after moving from Shaktar Donetsk in 2013.
The 27-year-old scored 33 goals in 114 games for the German club but so far he’s failed to make any kind of impact at Old Trafford, with just six appearances under boss Jose Mourinho.
He picked up a thigh injury in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester City on September 10 and was out for seven weeks before making a late substitute appearance against Fenerbahce in Istanbul recently.
But he was again left out of the United side which won at Swansea before the international break – and that’s alerted Dortmund.
Mkhitaryan skippered his country to their first World Cup qualifying win of the campaign yesterday as they battled back to beat Montenegro 3-2.