London Calling, Part II

Ironically, though it’s labeled as a decider, the outcome of tonight’s match might end up not carrying much weight when things come to a close. Because even with a win tonight, we’d have to count on Ukraine dropping points to either Belarus tonight or England in one month’s time. And if on par with points before the very last fixture, goal difference would kick in, meaning basically we’d go head to head as to who can batter their opponents more on the night (those unlucky sides being Kazahstan and Andorra respectively). But we’ll cross that bridge when (and if) we get to it. Now onto things at hand.

With Charlie out, it’s obvious Srna will take his place at right back, which leaves a few options as to who’ll fill in for Srna at the right side of midfield. Rakitic or Kranjcar? But speaking of Kranjcar (I’ll finish the previous thought in a bit), what’s clear as day is we need another runner to partner Vukojevic in the middle, as we struggled to hold our ground in that department against Belarus on Saturday (and I need not compare the difference in class between the Belarus and England midfield). The only players who fit the description are Pokrivac and Leko. But the downside is both of them have hardly seen any action lately (I should probably add: in footballing terms), as Pokrivac has just made a switch to Red Bull while Leko has been somewhat of a reject in Monaco for quite some time. Yet I can see Bilic starting with one of them, and my gut tells me it’s gonna be Leko. Why? Well for one he’s a bit more experienced and possesses more “bite”, whereas Pokrivac is little more of a passing type (though his experience at playing at left back early in his career could be of help tonight, that’s if we suffer on our left side, which is pretty much the card Capello played the last time we met). Which leaves us with the flanks. And I can’t see past Kranjcar and Rakitic on this one. They’ve got the brain to pass the ball around and the artillery to cut in and try one against the opposition’s goalie. Downside is, well, with the expected duo of Johnson and Lennon bombarding our left, either Kranjcar (presumably) or Rakitic will have to work extra hard to track back and help out Pranjic when the need arises. Up forward we have a no-brainer, a running type in Olic and a finisher in Eduardo. So the team could end up looking something like this:

Ideally, what this offers is experience on defense and aggression in the middle of the park, alongside some spark on the flanks to hopefully keep busy our strike force in front. Less ideally, we’ll have trouble defending the flanks with rather attacking minded side backs and not the most mobile and hard working of wingers. Discipline will never be as vital as in tonight’s clash. Saying that, something like the inclusion of Cale on left back and Pranjic further ahead in midfield (with Rakitic probably benched), wouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Particularly after hearing Bilic say he’s got a few surprises in store for tonight. Look out for Mandzukic somewhere in there as well.

As for previous encounters, we’ve met each other before obviously, the latest match ending in a 1:4 home defeat which saw them ending our 14 year long unbeaten-at-home record in a rather embarrassing fashion. But while painful, it’s nowhere near the pain and embarrassment the Gordi Albion had to endure when we beat them 3:2 at Wembley on the final day of Euro 2008 qualifiers. That victory had of course ensured England’s absence and consequentially Russia’s participation in the competition. So you could say things are a bit personal tonight. And the mind games (part of it covered by Daryl over at the English side of things) played by both sides might as well serve as an overture for tonight, which we hope will be as dramatic and fulfilling as that night in November ‘07 was, for us anyway.

Oh and a tiny bit of completely irrelevant information. The game tonight kicks off at 21:00 (or 9 in the evening if in Croatia), the date of course being 09/09/2009, and this being our 9th game of the cycle. One has to wonder, what are the odds of a number 9 deciding the outcome tonight? Yep, I thought so.

Ajmo Hrvatska!