Danny Higginbotham: England should not use Raheem Sterling as a No10… the Man City winger lacks the genius of Jack Wilshere, Paul Scholes or Steven Gerrard to play in the role
All the great 10s or attacking midfielders have that something special, unfortunately it was sorely missing against Slovenia
AT STOKE we made our pitch one of the smallest in the league.
But even so Paul Scholes used to make it feel like Wembley.
It was like he had half an hour on the ball. We couldn’t get near the little Manchester United midfielder. It was a joke. And he wasn’t quick.
But he knew how to find space, when to drop off, how to time his runs.
He was intelligent — and that helped him find freedom in the tightest part of the park — the midfield.
He’d get the ball on the half-turn, beat a man with his movement and then play killer passes. It was genius. Gerrard, Lampard and Gascoigne had it too.
All the great 10s or attacking midfielders in football have it.
And it was this genius that was so alarmingly missing in the England midfield against Slovenia.
I’m not for one second saying Raheem Sterling isn’t good enough to play for England. He is — but not as a No 10.
The City player is a winger. He’s breath- taking when he gets the ball facing his opponent. He can then beat them with pace and has space to run into.
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But it’s a completely different skill picking the ball up in the congested middle of the park.
The players I’m thinking of are the likes of Dele Alli and Adam Lallana but I’d argue the closest thing England have to Scholes is a fit and firing Jack Wilshere.
If he can stay fit and force his way into the Arsenal team he could be on that flight to Russia next summer.
He was brilliant in the Europa League last week doing just the things Scholes used to do — breaking down teams who have men behind the ball with his vision and clever passing.
And this is just what England will have to do in Russia. They will be up against at least two teams in their group who’ll defend in numbers — like Slovenia did.
What England do have is pace out wide — Marcus Rashford, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jesse Lingard, Sterling, Danny Rose, Kyle Walker are all rapid. And a clever No 10 — who doesn’t need great pace — can play these guys in at dangerous positions behind full-backs.
They can then provide the service for Harry Kane to keep banging in goals.
England’s pace will force defenders to drop deep, so the No 10, if his positioning is good, should get on the ball.
England may actually be better against the stronger teams who attack them. Then they can use pace to play on the counter-attack.
It will be interesting to see how England do against Germany and Brazil in next month’s friendlies when the opposition will have more of the ball. England may actually look more dangerous than they did against Slovenia.
That won’t solve England’s problem when they have to break down a massed defence in Russia. But a good No 10 just might.
