From link man to left midfielder, they will find a way to squeeze Steven Gerrard into this England team somehow.
They shoehorn the Liverpool midfielder into the side and encourage him to slide up and down the greasy pole that has become England's left midfield. Poor blighter.
Too good to leave out and too flexible to hold down his own position, he was stationed out there again last night. Good ol' Stevie G. Get him on the graveyard shift and let him get on with it.
Naturally he gave it his all, shuttling up and down the touchline in front of Ashley Cole and attempting to exert his authority on the game with those familiar, rampaging runs.
Never mind that England have players queuing up to play in The Problem Position, Fabio Capello is preparing the artillery for next month's game against Croatia in Zagreb.
A meeting of minds it is not. Instead, England's manager is planning to blitz Croatia opposite number Slaven Bilic with a brimful of big-name players.
One look at the names in England's midfield against the Czech Republic confirms that.
They don't come any bigger than David Beckham, of course, and he was joined by Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry and our man Gerrard.
Eight of the team who faced the Czech Republic have played in the Champions League Final, one believes he still could if he was allowed to join Liverpool (Barry) and two more will never set foot in the tournament (David James and Jermain Defoe).
Experience then over ingenuity. The tricksters were on the bench, relegated to a watching brief as the new England struggled to find another new dawn.
Timing is everything, of course. Just ask Stewart Downing, days after he memorably - and quite rightly - pointed out that the England team had been picked long before he made the 500-mile trip to join up with the squad under Steve McClaren. Groundhog Day for Middlesbrough's left winger.
What more does he have to do to get in this England team? He was majestic in Middlesbrough's 8-1 victory over Manchester City on the final day of last season and masterful during England's 3-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago on June 1.
From Magic Touch to Out of Touch in the space of a couple of months? Come on. Perhaps Gerrard's goal against the USA at Wembley last May did for him.
He was out on the left that night and Capello deemed it such a success that he gave it another go against this willing Czech Republic team.
He responded, as he always does, with courage and commitment. He has copyrighted the swashbuckling run from deep for Liverpool and he applied that logic down the left.
He set up Defoe with a chance predictably blasted straight at Petr Cech, and generally made a nuisance of himself in a position that he has anything but perfected. A work in progress rather than a work of art.
At least Capello has surely called it quits when it comes to the thorny issue of Lampard and Gerrard. They cannot play in the same central midfield and they surely never will after Capello indulged one and threatened to isolate the other.
Gerrard is itching to play alongside Barry, the man he wants with him at Liverpool and alongside him in England's engine room.
He may have to wait. Owen Hargreaves, missing last night with tendinitis, is another favourite of the England manager, and he is expected to be fit for the squad to face Andorra and Croatia in next month's World Cup qualifiers.
Someone will have to be left out. Just don't expect it to be England's left winger.
They shoehorn the Liverpool midfielder into the side and encourage him to slide up and down the greasy pole that has become England's left midfield. Poor blighter.
Too good to leave out and too flexible to hold down his own position, he was stationed out there again last night. Good ol' Stevie G. Get him on the graveyard shift and let him get on with it.
Naturally he gave it his all, shuttling up and down the touchline in front of Ashley Cole and attempting to exert his authority on the game with those familiar, rampaging runs.
Never mind that England have players queuing up to play in The Problem Position, Fabio Capello is preparing the artillery for next month's game against Croatia in Zagreb.
A meeting of minds it is not. Instead, England's manager is planning to blitz Croatia opposite number Slaven Bilic with a brimful of big-name players.
One look at the names in England's midfield against the Czech Republic confirms that.
They don't come any bigger than David Beckham, of course, and he was joined by Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry and our man Gerrard.
Eight of the team who faced the Czech Republic have played in the Champions League Final, one believes he still could if he was allowed to join Liverpool (Barry) and two more will never set foot in the tournament (David James and Jermain Defoe).
Experience then over ingenuity. The tricksters were on the bench, relegated to a watching brief as the new England struggled to find another new dawn.
Timing is everything, of course. Just ask Stewart Downing, days after he memorably - and quite rightly - pointed out that the England team had been picked long before he made the 500-mile trip to join up with the squad under Steve McClaren. Groundhog Day for Middlesbrough's left winger.
What more does he have to do to get in this England team? He was majestic in Middlesbrough's 8-1 victory over Manchester City on the final day of last season and masterful during England's 3-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago on June 1.
From Magic Touch to Out of Touch in the space of a couple of months? Come on. Perhaps Gerrard's goal against the USA at Wembley last May did for him.
He was out on the left that night and Capello deemed it such a success that he gave it another go against this willing Czech Republic team.
He responded, as he always does, with courage and commitment. He has copyrighted the swashbuckling run from deep for Liverpool and he applied that logic down the left.
He set up Defoe with a chance predictably blasted straight at Petr Cech, and generally made a nuisance of himself in a position that he has anything but perfected. A work in progress rather than a work of art.
At least Capello has surely called it quits when it comes to the thorny issue of Lampard and Gerrard. They cannot play in the same central midfield and they surely never will after Capello indulged one and threatened to isolate the other.
Gerrard is itching to play alongside Barry, the man he wants with him at Liverpool and alongside him in England's engine room.
He may have to wait. Owen Hargreaves, missing last night with tendinitis, is another favourite of the England manager, and he is expected to be fit for the squad to face Andorra and Croatia in next month's World Cup qualifiers.
Someone will have to be left out. Just don't expect it to be England's left winger.
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