On Friday night we got our first chance to see Stuart Pearce’s Great Britain side in action. What we saw was a team who have only been training together for a matter of weeks go up against a side, for whom the majority of players have been playing international football together for almost three years at under 19 and 21 level.
The match at the Riverside Stadium gave everybody the chance to pick at every single thing that went wrong and look for the negatives in the night. The negatives were plain for all the see. James Tomkins and Micah Richards for me shouldn’t be the central defensive partnership. Without trying to seem harsh, Tomkins still looks like a Championship defender. He will have to get better quickly and I don’t think it will happen overnight.
It is the kind of development a season in the top flight with West Ham will change. His slow reactions on a number of occasions and allowing his man to wonder around as freely as they wanted was a major concern for not just myself, but for Pearce and his coaching staff.
In my opinion the other main concern is the fact that Danny Rose looks to have a main role in the side. Personally, I don’t think he should start. He has seen limited game time for the past couple of years and for me lacks the quality and experience the Great Britain side will need if they stand any chance of finishing in a medal place. A better way to play is to have Craig Bellamy cutting in from the left, Daniel Sturridge from the right and Marvin Sordell up front, or even Sturridge as the main striker with Scott Sinclair on the wing.
It will be interesting to see how Stuart Pearce will set his team up next week against Senegal. Pearce who told BBC sport following the game:
“We have to take positives; we passed well up until the final third but we gave a couple of sloppy goals away”. We’ll be hoping to see a replica of the second half performance from his side. Despite missing long parts of the season with injury, Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley showed some decent touches and at times showed that he has played for a team like United with his positioning and experience to handle the play actor that was Neymar.
Other positives to come from the game was the second half performance from Jack Butland, who made a few decent saves and kept the scoreline modest. Although I would like to point out that Jason Steele didn’t have a bad game, with no chance with either goal but Butland faced more shots. Also the link up at times from the experienced Welsh duo of Giggs and Bellamy was slowly getting there and could cause even the higher calibre of opposition problems. Lastly the fact that Daniel Sturridge has showed no ill-effects following his meningitis scare over the past few weeks, a positive sign for Team GB, so let the games begin.
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