SOCCER: England v CroatiaSteve McClaren has taken the bold and unexpected decision to drop Paul Robinson and David Beckham for tonight's decisive final qualifying fixture against Croatia, starting Scott Carson and Shaun Wright-Phillips instead as England seek a point to progress to Euro 2008.
The England manager confirmed his starting line-up in a "game plan" meeting with his squad at the team's Hertfordshire hotel last night aware that, even though the form of Carson and Wright-Phillips arguably warrants their inclusion, the selection still constitutes a risk.
Beckham and Robinson boast 98 and 41 caps respectively, the goalkeeper being the only player to have featured in every minute of the side's qualification campaign to date. McClaren has effectively risked his reputation by choosing to start a crucial fixture without their experience.
Owen Hargreaves will join them on the bench, the England coach preferring Aston Villa's Gareth Barry as a midfield shield against the group leaders, with doubts persisting over the Manchester United man's ability to play a full 90 minutes after a recent tendinitis problem.
Beckham's lack of fitness has proved decisive in his non-selection. The 32-year-old has not completed a full game since LA Galaxy's 3-0 defeat to Chivas USA on August 23rd, some 24 hours after playing for England in their 2-1 friendly defeat to Germany.
There had seemed to be some justification in selecting Beckham against Croatia to provide the lone striker, Liverpool's Peter Crouch, with accurate delivery even though the former captain managed only 62 minutes in last Friday's 1-0 win in Austria. Instead McClaren has preferred the pace and trickery of Wright-Phillips who, despite struggling recently at Chelsea, did excel in recent Wembley victories over Estonia, Russia and Israel.
"One of the reasons we had that game (in Austria) was to see people's fitness," said the England coach. "David lasted just over an hour. You could see he needed that game, but the last two days in training he's been very good, excellent.
"On Shaun Wright-Phillips, his last three games at Wembley were very good - he scored a couple of goals and created others. We did talk about pace on both flanks and the pleasing thing for me is that Wright-Phillips showed that, with Joe Cole on the other side."
McClaren admitted there was a gamble to be taken on whether to opt for experience or pace. "There's risk in everything," he said. "Experience is invaluable in these situations but there's also the innocence of youth. Micah Richards and even Joleon Lescott in the last couple of games have shown they can handle the situation. You need the experience but also the innocence of youth. It's a big game and we need big-game players, but it doesn't matter what age you are. You can still be a big-game player whether you're 18 or 33.
"David Beckham is one of the best players in that position on the right-hand side and to have him around the squad is invaluable. But it's not about David, Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen. It's not about individuals. It's about the team ethic. Why we've done so well in the second half of the campaign is because we've played as a team."
McClaren would also argue there is sound reasoning behind the demotion of Robinson. Despite the manager having long insisted the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper was his number one, the 28-year-old has been error-prone in recent matches for club and country - most notably with England against Germany and Russia this season - and Carson took his chance by keeping a clean sheet on his debut in Austria last week, albeit in a game in which he was rarely tested.
This will be the 22-year-old's first competitive appearance for his country and there is inevitably some risk, given the importance of the occasion, although he has flourished when thrown in before. As a 19-year-old he was asked to play in Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Juventus in 2005 and performed well in a 2-1 victory that ultimately put the Merseysiders into the last four.
McClaren insisted Robinson's occasionally erratic performance in training this week had not influenced his decision. "I made my mind up about the goalkeeping situation well before the players joined up on Sunday evening," he said. "Once I knew the result (in Israel) and what we had to do in this game, I roughly knew the team. We're in control of our own destiny again and there's been a great uplift from the players since Saturday night. Now it's up to us to prove to everybody that we're good enough to qualify."
Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva is set to lead Croatia's attack and the 24-year-old is the key weapon in their armoury.
Eduardo netted Croatia's second against England at the Maximir Stadion in October 2006 and is the second top scorer in qualifying with 10 goals, three behind Northern Ireland's David Healy.
Croatia will look to counter-attack whenever possible and bombard England from set-pieces with Portsmouth's Niko Kranjcar providing the attacking impetus.
Venue: Wembley Kick-off: 8pm On TV: BBC 1
