England are due to play World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana in a friendly match at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday, although it will be a weakened side sent out by Fabio Capello after sending home five of his senior players to rest. None of John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Michael Dawson, or Wayne Rooney will play any part in the match, while Kyle Walker and Aaron Lennon have both withdrawn with injury problems.
England Vs. Ghana, Preview: Visitors Primed To Spring Surprise Over Weakened England
After a comfortable 2-0 win over Wales, Capello seems content enough with his veteran players, and is using the friendly as a chance to test out some of his less-capped players in his new 4-3-3 formation. With five players in the starting lineup from the match in Cardiff gone, the manager has named the bulk of his team to face Ghana already:
Joe Hart will play in goal, we will have Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka at centre-back and Leighton Baines will play at left-back. [Gareth] Barry will be the captain and [Andy] Carroll will play up front. Scott Parker will play if he is fit but he has got a little problem. I will decide on Tuesday if he plays for 90 minutes or however long.
That leaves one spot in defence open, possibly two in midfield, and two in the attack. It seems unlikely that Ashley Young will be called upon to play a full ninety minutes after his excellent work at the Millennium Stadium, but with both Matthew Jarvis and Stewart Downing waiting in the wings England are unlikely to have a problem with width.
The midfield is more contentious. Arsenal are already annoyed with how often Jack Wilshere is playing for his country and if Capello starts the 20 year-old there again he may be lining himself up for a major row with Gunners manager Arsene Wenger. Gareth Barry captains the team, and since he's the most senior player still with the set-up it's hard to argue that he doesn't deserve it.
Ghana, meanwhile, are fresh off an easy 3-0 away win against the Congo in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, and although they're missing Michael Essien they're still a force to be reckoned with. Unlike England, they'll be taking this match extremely seriously - their status as international powerhouses is recent enough that Wembley Stadium and the three lions still represent something magical, and the players will be desperate to put themselves on the map by beating England away from home.
While Ghana have featured a 4-4-2 diamond in the past, it's highly unlikely that a team would want to play in such a shape against England due to width concerns - the last thing you want to do is give Glen Johnson and Matt Jarvis an overload on the right side with Andy Carroll waiting in the centre, and the diamond would reduce the visitors' ability to both defend and attack out wide, an area which should be England's strength.
Ghana, therefore, should play in a position broadly similar to England's, a 4-3-3 which could be interpreted as a 4-1-4-1 depending on how deep their wingers play. With most of England's top-class players out of the picture, Ghana should find it relatively straightforward to dominate possession in the centre of the park thanks to a midfield corps that will feature three out of four of Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah and Anthony Annan, while the attack will probably be spearheaded by Sunderland's Asamoah Gyan flanked by Andre Ayew and Prince Tagoe.
At full strength, England would probably find Ghana a handful, and I’d be surprised if the hosts didn’t look like the away side at Wembley on Wedensday. Ghana are simply too good for Capello to drop most of his best players for the match against them, and they’ll probably make him pay. Fortunately, this is just a friendly match - a way to test some fringe players out against an extremely tough opponent. It’ll be fascinating to see how the likes of Leighton Baines and Matt Jarvis do against an underrated and highly motivated Ghana.
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