England v Croatia team latest 8 September 2009

Fabio Capello is holding his cards closely to his chest in terms of Wayne Rooney's striking partner going into the exciting World Cup qualifier tonight between England and Croatia. Emile Heskey has the physical, team player strengths and Defoe is simply on fire - who will he go for? I think he'll be prudent and go with Heskey to start with the option of playing Defoe for either the last 30 mins or even all of the second half if necessary.

The other tricky one is the right hand side of midfield. Using Beckham tactically as a dead ball super sub works, Theo Walcott is out with a back injury so will he go for Wright-Philips or Lennon to start?

Does it feel like 2 years ago that England lost to Croatia with Steve McClaren hanging his head in shame underneath his umbrella? For me it doesn't, I vividly remember the feeling of disbelief as we failed to qualify for the European Championships 2008 losing 2-3 to the Croats. Scott Carson did have a shocker but there were other more experienced players playing at new Wembley for England that night.

Now under Capello, England at qualifying level are a sturdier propoposition. To some degree, England laid the ghost to rest when beating Croatia 1-4 in Zagreb and are 4 points of the opposition going into this home fixture. We question whether they would be World Cup winning material but are assuming that we will be in South Africa because we are in pole position with the opportunity to book our place tonight at Wembley.

Croatia themselves are not in the best of positions and need the points making this a great little midweek international clash. If they lose and the Ukraine win they could be border line for World Cup qualification which would be a bit of a shock when looking at the group. Also without key Spurs players, Corluka and Modric England will really be looking to ruffle the Croatians. Their star player is definitely Eduardo and you could picture him popping up and bagging a goal just when least expected.

Potential England line up for this World Cup qualifier:

GK Green,
RBJohnson
CB Terry
CB Upson
LB Cole
RM Lennon
CM Lampard
CM Gerrard
LM Barry
CF Rooney
CFHeskey