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Football / World Cup: Wright's recovery bolsters English belief: Taylor determined to play for both points while Advocaat is more cautious about Dutch prospects

Joe Lovejoy,Football Correspondent
Sunday 10 October 1993 23:02 BST
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ON THE face of it, it was not the most auspicious of starts. While England spent the weekend checking casualties, the Netherlands were counting goals, putting five past their Under-21 team in a morale-boosting exercise for The Big One on Wednesday.

Now for the good news. Ian Wright is fit to play, and Dutch confidence is in need of all the enhancement it can get, their approach to the make-or-break date in Rotterdam strangely apprehensive. Scoring five, even in a training work-out, will have done them no harm, but they are still talking their prospects down - preparing excuses rather than their route to Las Vegas for the World Cup draw.

'We are without Van Basten and Gullit, and England are stronger, mentally and physically,' is a reasonable precis of Dick Advocaat's latest briefing.

Graham Taylor, in contrast, is making light of the loss of Paul Gascoigne and Les Ferdinand, and the thigh trouble threatening the availability of Stuart Pearce, preferring to celebrate Wright's timely recovery from his knee injury. Intensive physiotherapy has repaired the damaged ligaments, and the mood at the squad's Buckinghamshire headquarters brightened perceptibly, prior to this afternoon's departure, when the Arsenal striker took a full part in training.

The Dutch, who could only draw at home to Poland, were deeply impressed with the way England brushed the same opposition aside last month, and fear that the opponents who always worried them most may have found their form at the right time.

Taylor certainly believes so, and is talking of a famous win - not just the draw that would suffice. He is convinced that his team turned the corner when they powered past the Poles. Suddenly, the ill-starred summer is forgotten. There had been only one poor performance in eight in the qualifying series, and Oslo could be dismissed as a bad day at the office.

Typical Taylor. The man has become adept at rewriting history to suit his purpose. The fact that England, from 2-0 up, should have beaten the Dutch at home, that they let the Norwegians off the hook at Wembley and that they were 'headless chickens' - his phrase at the time - in Poland is conveniently erased from the managerial memory.

Even the debacle in Norway is viewed in revisionist light, his critics 'misunderstanding' the ill-advised use of Gary Pallister, out of position, to mark Jostein Flo. The game-plan had been positive and was misrepresented, he says.

Abject surrender or aberration, Oslo has served a valuable purpose in persuading Taylor to eschew capricious experimentation in favour of the tried and trusted tactics with which his players are familiar, and feel most comfortable. No more wing-backs and sweepers, then and, with no Gascoigne to cosset, no 'umbrella' midfield. Good old 4-4-2 had crushed Poland and would be the way of it against the Dutch.

Should injuries necessitate changes, they would be made on a one-for-one basis, within an unchanged basic framework, Taylor said. A striker would replace a striker, a full-back a full-back, and so on. The fundamental shape of the team would remain unaltered. Pearce, who could manage only light work yesterday but is said to be making 'steady progress', would presumably give way to Tony Dorigo, of Leeds United.

The loss of the captain would be a considerable blow. He is not yet back to his best, defensively, after his long lay-off, but his flexed-muscle leadership was of no small significance in bringing about the required improvement in the Poland match, and his 'Rule Britannia' spirit is needed for what is sure to be a fraught, fractious occasion.

Wright's pace will be welcome against a Dutch defence conspicuously short of it, and there is a feeling within the squad, articulated by Paul Ince, that this could be the game when the Arsenal predator finally reproduces his club form on the international stage. 'I feel it in my bones that Ian is going to be the man on Wednesday,' Ince said.

A shorter-price bet than Wright - destined for the bench had Ferdinand been fit - is Alan Shearer, whose strength and aggression will probably worry the Dutch into recalling the Feyenoord bruiser, John De Wolf.

It is Shearer's return, more than any other single factor, that has Taylor speaking in terms of two points rather than one.

England would not be playing for a draw, he said. 'We want to win. The worst scenario I can imagine is going there playing for a draw and losing. If we did that we'd get hammered back home, and deservedly so. If we play for a win, sensibly, we might get it, or we might come away with a draw. There's no reason to think we are not capable of either result.

'I think this Dutch side respect us. Our game with them at Wembley reinforced that, and when you get a 3-0 win at international level against opposition like Poland, people take notice.'

Confident or not, Taylor is breaking with tradition in delaying the announcement of his team until shortly before kick-off, hoping to keep the Dutch in the dark as to his intentions.

If Pearce completes his recovery in time, the likelihood is two changes, with Shearer in for Ferdinand and Andy Sinton introduced on the right of midfield, with Platt moving into the centre, in Gascoigne's place.

For their training game against the Under-21s, the Netherlands played a 3-3-1-3 formation, with De Wolf and Frank De Boer marking and Ronald Koeman as libero behind a midfield of Erwin Koeman, Wim Jonk and Frank Rijkaard. The attack comprised Dennis Bergkamp, just behind Johnny Bosman, with the strikers serviced by two wingers, Bryan Roy and Marc Overmars.

The only change Advocaat is considering would see the combative Jan Wouters replace Jonk in central midfield.

World Cup wrap-up, page 29

Reports and results, page 28

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