FDV gets maligned rightly for being a turnstile on defence. Made worse at the moment by he's still working his way back to full match fitness.
The only part of his game that is international standard is his crossing/dead ball delivery. It is high class.
He swings in that late free kick and it causes genuine worries in the English box. It results in our first and only corner of the game.
Then FDV delivers in a top quality fast swerving corner, that Trafford doesn't deal with that convincingly, but England get the free kick to relieve things.
The other part of the jigsaw is that Old is now performing very well at LB. He gave exciting talent Ngumoha no space at all. Old has been performing week in week out for St Etienne as a top defender. So when Libby tires, pacy Old can come on at LB, and then later when needing a goal FDV can come on as a pseudo winger knowing FDV's bad defensive limitations will hopefully be covered by Old's top class speed and defensive nous.
Wood had come off by the time FDV came on, but in the WC itself unless injured Wood will likely play every minute of every game. There is a potential FDV-Wood moment of magic that could happen very late in a game.
For this WC, Old is a LB, not a winger. Go to the Ben Old thread and you will see a heap of stats there via Niche Cache, that show OId's 'final product' stats in France are poor. In some cases really poor. It's his big workon, and hopefully he can improve. But he has quickly developed into a really good LB, and you suspect for him to play at the highest possible level that's now his position.
On the weekend him & Randall link nicely but then Old slightly over cooks his final pass to Randall (who was off side anyway) and it's a comfortable pick up for Trafford.
For me against Iran it is - Crocs, Libby, Boxall, Surman, Payne, Bell, Stamenic, Singh/McCowatt, Garbett, Just, Wood
Subs from depending on the state of the game - Thomas, Old, Singh/McCowatt, Randall, Bindon, Rufer and last FDV
Thomas starts when he is match fit, which fingers crossed may yet be the Iran game. Shame that Paulsen's form hasn't been great since the March window (Chile game). Bindon did an okay job coming on for Payne at RB.
The only part of his game that is international standard is his crossing/dead ball delivery. It is high class.
He swings in that late free kick and it causes genuine worries in the English box. It results in our first and only corner of the game.
Then FDV delivers in a top quality fast swerving corner, that Trafford doesn't deal with that convincingly, but England get the free kick to relieve things.
The other part of the jigsaw is that Old is now performing very well at LB. He gave exciting talent Ngumoha no space at all. Old has been performing week in week out for St Etienne as a top defender. So when Libby tires, pacy Old can come on at LB, and then later when needing a goal FDV can come on as a pseudo winger knowing FDV's bad defensive limitations will hopefully be covered by Old's top class speed and defensive nous.
Wood had come off by the time FDV came on, but in the WC itself unless injured Wood will likely play every minute of every game. There is a potential FDV-Wood moment of magic that could happen very late in a game.
For this WC, Old is a LB, not a winger. Go to the Ben Old thread and you will see a heap of stats there via Niche Cache, that show OId's 'final product' stats in France are poor. In some cases really poor. It's his big workon, and hopefully he can improve. But he has quickly developed into a really good LB, and you suspect for him to play at the highest possible level that's now his position.
On the weekend him & Randall link nicely but then Old slightly over cooks his final pass to Randall (who was off side anyway) and it's a comfortable pick up for Trafford.
For me against Iran it is - Crocs, Libby, Boxall, Surman, Payne, Bell, Stamenic, Singh/McCowatt, Garbett, Just, Wood
Subs from depending on the state of the game - Thomas, Old, Singh/McCowatt, Randall, Bindon, Rufer and last FDV
Thomas starts when he is match fit, which fingers crossed may yet be the Iran game. Shame that Paulsen's form hasn't been great since the March window (Chile game). Bindon did an okay job coming on for Payne at RB.