When England meet Scotland on Wednesday at Wembley, England’s team will boast world class internationals like Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole who play for Premiership heavyweights Manchester United and Chelsea.
In contrast, Scotland have 12 players out of their 29 man squad not playing top flight football.
Even those Scottish players who play top-flight football shouldn’t pose much of a threat to England.
No disrespect to Norwich winger Robert Snodgrass or Vancouver Whitecaps forward Kenny Miller but, with Ashley Cole’s pace and sound defending, he should not be severely tested by them.
It is more likely that the England attacking line up will give the Scottish defence a torrid time.
Wayne Rooney’s ability coupled with Danny Welbeck’s pace mean that England should create ample scoring opportunities against the Scots.
Instead of meaningless friendlies like these England should only play matches against the top 30 teams in FIFA’s official rankings.
Playing Scotland, who are ranked 50th – 36 places below England and have failed to qualify for a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup – tells Roy Hodgson nothing about his side’s ability to compete with the world’s best players.
Previous international friendlies against top quality opponents have been a better measure of England’s progress, or lack of it.
When England played Brazil at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, in June this year, they fell behind to a goal by forward Fred, but took the lead thanks to goals by Rooney and Arsenal teenage winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, only to concede an 82nd minute goal to Paulinho.
England learned that, while they spent large portions of the game under pressure, they could compete with the five-time world champions on their own ground.
The Three Lions also learned that they must continue working on their concentration late-on in games to ensure that they do not concede last minute goals in the knockout stages of tournaments that could abruptly halt English progress and lead to further national pain.
The lessons learned in Brazil will hold England in the good stead for playing in hot temperatures against top opposition should they qualify for next year’s World Cup.
Equally, Sweden’s 4-2 demolition of England in Stockholm in November 2012 with a four-goal haul by Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a brutal lesson.
When playing very organised teams like the Swedes they need a deliberate strategy to prevent the ball being delivered to the opposition’s most creative outlets.
World and European champions Spain are also guilty of the same inept organisation.
Their 5-1 thrashing of 40th ranked Panama in November 2012 will have taught them very little and could only serve to massage the egos of the Spaniards.
Furthermore, the match would not have been much use for Panama.
If teams want to improve then they need to play in competitive matches. Getting thrashed by the world champions is not competitive.
When Spain and England met in November 2011 the Three Lions came out on top 1-0.
This match offered both teams the opportunity to scout potential rivals and refine their systems in an even match-up.
I recognise that this is an elitist viewpoint that would pit the world’s best teams against each other, but weaker ones should improve their qualifying records before they are thrown into the deep end unrealistically challenging considerably superior opposition.
If England are serious about ending 47 years of hurt, then they must consistently test themselves against World Cup and European Championship contenders like the Brazil’s and Spain’s of this world and less against the Scotland’s.
Only then will they know to what extent they can compete against them and the progress they must make to match their level.
It might make us feel nostalgic to revive the Anglo-Scot rivalry and thrash the Scots, but I would rather choose silverware over nostalgia any day of the week.
Image courtesy of TSN via Youtube, with thanks.
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