Team News

Slovenia forward Nejc Pecnik will miss the rest of the World Cup after breaking his right ankle in Friday’s 2-2 draw against the United States.

England will be without Jamie Carragher who is suspended and Ledley King who has not recovered from the injury sustained in the first match.  Former Blue Matthew Upson is expected to deputise and Michael Carrick should be available if needed.

Last Meeting

The only previous encounter between these two sides was a friendly game in Wembley in September 2009 which England won 2-1.  A Frank Lampard penalty and a second half Jermain Defoe goal were enough to give England the win.

Recent Form

Slovenia have looked OK in their first two group matches and sit top of the group with four points.  In their last warm up game they beat New Zealand 3-1 which is more than Italy could do.

The less said about England’s first two games the better and they were not too impressive in the warm up matches either.

Outlook

Well I’m used to writing previews on Blues matches but this is a totally different level altogether.  This will be the biggest game in English football for four years and nothing other than a win will do.  I consider that a good thing as teams can often come unstuck when they only need a draw as they are unsure how to approach the game.  With the players they have England should beat Slovenia who have only a fraction of our resources and no big name players.  I’d only heard of Robert Koren before the tournament started and if your star player plays for West Brom you know you are in trouble!

However after the Algeria game I am far from confident that victory will be ours.  That was one of the worst England performances I have ever seen devoid of any passion or quality.  Something has to change if we are not going to suffer an embarrassing early exit.  I would personally drop Heskey and let Rooney play up front with Gerrard behind him.  Joe Cole should fill the gap on the left.  If this is not working after sixty minutes then take Rooney and one of Gerrard, Lampard, Joe Cole off and play Crouch and Defoe up top in a 4-4-2.  This is what I would like to happen but I doubt it will.  Capello strikes me as a little too rigid in his views to try anything too radical.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if Heskey is again in the starting line up.

While the formation is important England also need to rediscover their fight and passion.  Hopefully the do or die nature of this fixture will give them the kick that they need.  After missing out on Euro 2008 the team owe us supporters a good tournament.  The flags are still flying around my estate and I wouldn’t like to see them all being taken down tomorrow evening.  Sitting through the rest of the tournament without our team will be too much to bear.  We’d be left with supporting Zigic and his Serbia team who are playing tomorrow evening.

I’ve no idea what will happen so I won’t make a prediction.  I’m just going to say

COME ON ENGLAND!!