Will the real England manager please stand up? Even if tonight's Italy v England clash at the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin qualifies as a prestige friendly, perhaps as much English attention will focus on the handling and direction of the side as on the result.
Caretaker English manager Peter Taylor could hardly have a more intimidating international baptism, having to prepare a youthful English side for an away game with Euro 2000 runners-up Italy, currently in excellent form. Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson, currently coach to Italian champions Lazio but due to take over the England job next July, is probably happy enough that he will be sitting in the VIP grandstand rather than on the England bench tonight.
Faced with a series of unwanted last-minute withdrawals including Liverpool striker Michael Owen, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard and Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes, the caretaker English coach has named 25-year-old Manchester United star, David Beckham, as captain while nominating experienced figures such as Gareth Southgate and Gary Neville in defence, Nicky Butt in midfield and Nick Barmby as support to Liverpool's Emile Heskey in attack.
Given that Taylor had already opted to discard English "senators" such as Tony Adams, Paul Ince, Steve McManaman and Martin Keown, the last-minute defections would appear to put even more pressure on a side that contains some unfamiliar names at this level, including midfielder Ray Parlour, defender Gareth Barry and goalkeeper David James. In this context, the role of English captain may prove to require something more than diplomatic protocol, a point acknowledged yesterday by Beckham.
"I'm not going to be one of those captains that shouts his mouth off. It is going to be a very hard game, a very tough test for a young team and it is my job to tell them what it will be like," said Beckham.
The Manchester United midfielder went on to confess that he hoped to hold onto the England captaincy, even when Eriksson takes over, adding: "It's the best honour in anyone's career. When you are a kid you think of playing for your country and for the team you support, but to captain your country is something you always dream of."
Beckham also chose yesterday to reflect on his fluctuating fortunes, at least in the England shirt, over the last three seasons. Inevitably, many recall the sense of national opprobrium after he got himself sent off in England's dramatic France '98 secondround loss to Argentina. Beckham recalled that incident yesterday, saying: "Two years ago, I was not liked by a lot of people. But two years on I am walking out leading the England team . . . I got my head down, played football and won trophies."
While England experiment, Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni is in the comfortable position of fielding a settled and winning side. On the day that England's 1-0 World Cup defeat at Wembley by Germany prompted Kevin Keegan's resignation as English manager, Italy gave one of their best home performances of recent years to defeat Romania 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier. That win had been preceded by a useful and unlucky 2-2 away draw with Hungary and was followed by another World Cup win, 2-0 at home to Georgia.
In such a context, the last-minute forfeit of Euro 2000 star Francesco Totti seems less than catastrophic, since he will be replaced by the talented Udinese midfielder Stefano Fiore, who will be laying on the supplies for Marco Delvecchio and Filippo Inzaghi. Italy not only present real class in the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini in defence but they also field an exciting new entry in twice-capped AC Milan left-sided midfielder Francesco Coco.
The English side will probably give a better account of themselves than some neutrals might expect but Italy are clearly the favourites tonight. Nor can the English feel safe if they opt to count on Italy's legendary ability to underperform in friendlies.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Italian captain Paol Maldini explained: "When Italy play, every match matters so you can just imagine how much this one matters against a side like England. They will have a lot of enthusiasm and when the coach changes, that usually stimulates players a lot. We know that this will be a tough match and my only regret is that the pitch is very heavy and that there will probably be few spectators tonight.
"We've played very well recently, we had a great run at Euro 2000 and you'd have to say that this is a good moment for Italy."
Italy: Buffon; Cannavaro, Nesta, Maldini; Di Livio, Gattuso, Albertini, Coco; Fiore; Delvecchio, F Inzaghi.
England: James; Barry, Southgate, Ferdinand, G Neville; Butt, Dyer, Beckham, Parlour; Barmby, Heskey.
