McClaren's baffling selection hurls Smith into Brazil battle

Steve McClaren has already staked his job on bringing back David Beckham, but tonight he will also take a huge gamble on the form of Alan Smith and Ledley King, who are back in the England team despite long absences through injury and form this season. Both are set to start in the friendly against Brazil as McClaren prepares for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on Wednesday that will decide his fate.

The new Wembley awaits and so too do the fans who booed and abused McClaren during the Andorra game in Barcelona in March. Having toyed with the idea of a 4-5-1 formation in training this week, McClaren has decided to go back to the more familiar 4-4-2 and partner Michael Owen with Smith, who has just one international goal to show for his 16 caps. Picking Smith with Owen is another novel McClaren decision: between them the pair have scored just one goal in competitive football in 17 months - Smith's strike in Manchester United's win over Roma in April.

In defence, McClaren has opted to shift Jamie Carragher out of position to right-back and play Ledley King in the centre alongside John Terry, even though the Tottenham captain has had just six games since Christmas. It would seem that this side is likely to be the line-up to face Estonia, with a holding midfielder not deemed necessary for that game. The absence of one against Kaka and Ronaldinho tonight at Wembley, however, might make a difference.

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Of all the options left open to him, McClaren has decided to pick a midfield that will be familiar to students of his predecessor, Sven Goran Eriksson. David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole last lined up as a quartet against Trinidad & Tobago in the World Cup in June, but that combination - or slight variations upon it - had become a staple of the Swede's muddled thinking long before then.

It would seem incredible that, 10 months into his regime, McClaren is no closer to resolving the problematic partnership of Lampard and Gerrard at the centre of a four-man midfield. The England manager's options have been limited by the injury to Owen Hargreaves, but despite that he will still press ahead with a pairing which, the overwhelming evidence suggests, does not operate successfully. Given McClaren's precarious position, it seems he is just as willing as Eriksson to stake all on Lampard and Gerrard finally hitting it off.

In attack, McClaren has been restricted by Wayne Rooney's suspension for the Estonia game and the injuries to Aaron Lennon and Andy Johnson, yet his decision to pick Smith, who has made just 18 appearances for United this season, is the most baffling of all. Smith has not been picked by Sir Alex Ferguson in either of the two crucial games against Milan or in the FA Cup final, when he came on as a substitute.

In fact, neither Smith nor Owen have scored in the Premiership since Owen hit a hat-trick against West Ham on 17 December 2005. The Newcastle striker last scored for England in the friendly against Jamaica on 3 June last year, the same day Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick. Since then the Liverpool striker has scored six goals for his country and 18 for his club, but he will have to settle for a place on the bench tonight.

McClaren's faith in Smith appears to be based largely on his performance against Albania's B team last Friday, when the striker scored once, and his performance in the 7-1 defeat of Roma, almost two months ago. It was that game which McClaren referred to when he lavished praise on the player last week and Smith's inclusion will owe much to Ferguson's warm recommendation.

Carragher's deployment at right-back is something of a snub for a player who has been most observers' outstanding centre-back this season, although it is also indicative of how little faith the England manager places in Wes Brown and Phil Neville to do the job. Nicky Shorey will start the game - and he is due to get married tomorrow - although there is a chance that Wayne Bridge will be back to face Estonia.

McClaren will be mindful that a repeat of the bullying, vitriolic atmosphere in Barcelona would be no way to mark the first England international at Wembley. Having booked into a Park Lane hotel yesterday, however, he might also hope that the superstars of Brazil are counting on a weekend break in London rather than the chance to embarrass English football. Terry said yesterday that England had to make their new stadium a difficult place for visiting teams to come.

"When teams first come in they might think, 'Yeah, it's a great stadium', but at the same time we're hoping they will think, 'Flipping hell, with 80,000-90,000 England fans it's going to be difficult for us today'," he said. "Hopefully, we can get that. Brazil is a test for us and the perfect opportunity for us to repay the fans and give them what they want. We're back at our home. We can set the marker now for teams coming here in the future if we can get a result against Brazil. Everyone's going to realise how difficult it's going to be."

Terry even said that should Beckham reach 100 caps - he will win his 95th tonight - he would give him the captain's armband for the day, although he might have been joking. England have beaten Brazil in just three out of 21 games and, for McClaren's sake, tonight would be a good time to improve on that record.