The experimental and innovative nature of the England side due to meet Italy in a friendly in Turin tomorrow night took another development yesterday when, after a morning training session, two of the most experienced players of the under-30 brigade called up by interim manager Peter Taylor, Michael Owen and Paul Scholes, limped out of contention and returned home.
Neither Owen, who has a back injury, nor Scholes, who sustained a thigh strain during yesterday's training session, even bothered to board the flight to Italy. After the withdrawals on Sunday of Leeds United striker Alan Smith and Manchester United's Wes Brown, that meant Taylor was left with 22 players from which to choose. Most attention will centre on who will play up front.
Taylor has a few permutations left, but if he is to play a twin strike-force Sunderland's Kevin Phillips may at last be given a runout, probably alongside Liverpool's Emile Heskey. Should Taylor become the latest England manager to overlook Phillips's claims, then Robbie Fowler may partner his Anfield colleague. Meanwhile, Scholes's absence may mean a full debut in midfield for West Ham's Frank Lampard.
David James talked yesterday as if he had been told he would be starting in Turin. James won his only cap as far back as March 1997 against Mexico, but his form at Aston Villa over the past season has been much more consistent than when he was at Anfield.
At 30, James is the oldest player in the squad and he stood by his new manager's controversial decision to annex the older players for this game. "Peter is using this squad as an experiment and it doesn't actually help the international side if you are playing mega-experienced players.
"It presents an opportunity for the likes of Gareth Barry and several others to get some experience under their belts. If you have injuries with your senior players when the next World Cup qualifiers come around, then to chuck in unused players is putting on a lot of pressure," said James.
Those sentiments are also applicable to Taylor, who will hand over to Sven Goran Eriksson after the game. Taylor will have met his successor by then, he revealed. "Sven will meet me at some stage in Turin. He was very supportive but was keen to stress he would prefer to leave things to me completely for this game. Obviously I'm very happy with this," said Taylor.
Eriksson's watching brief may end sooner than expected after Dino Zoff, now at Lazio after his summer resignation from Italy said yesterday that the club would allow Eriksson to oversee England's next qualifiers, against Finland and Albania.
