Posts Tagged ‘John Toshack’
John Toshack to sound out Wales team over venue for England qualifier
• Millennium Stadium may be shunned in favour of smaller venue
• Toshack predicts nations will struggle to agree fixture dates
The Wales manager, John Toshack, will consult his players before deciding whether to play their home Euro 2012 qualifier with England in the Millennium Stadium or a smaller and more intimidating ground.
Wales are in the same group as Fabio Capello’s side in addition to Switzerland, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Holding the match at the Millennium Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 75,000, would mean more revenue and less headaches in terms of security.
Toshack, however, admits other options to consider are the new Cardiff City Stadium (capacity 27,000) and Swansea’s Liberty complex (22,000) where they host Sweden in a friendly on 3 March.
Toshack said: “Things have changed a bit recently for us. We have got two other stadiums now. We were well pleased with the treatment we got from the Cardiff people when we played Scotland there recently.
“Swansea have a new stadium as well and we have been treated well there and play Sweden there shortly. You have to consider the atmosphere factor as well. It is early days yet. We have a fixture meeting on 15 March when it will be decided what dates we play but you don’t have to announce the venue until 90 days before a fixture.
“I will be interested to get the players’ views on that subject as well so we have got a little bit of time to decide.”
Toshack concedes England will be favourites to qualify but believes the battle for second spot is wide open. “Looking at our group, I think it is the most wide open of all of them. England will be clear favourites but I think the other four nations are all in contention.
“Between the four of us there is not a great deal to choose at all. It is difficult for anyone to predict the positions the teams will finish in. There are no ‘gimme’ fixtures for anyone. England are favourites but none of the teams are superpowers.”
Toshack locked horns with Capello just once when rival managers in Spain during the 1990s, but believes he can lead England to a successful World Cup.
“I sat next to Capello on the plane on the way over for the draw yesterday and we had a good two and a half hour conversation. On the way back he sat at the back, I sat at the front and we never said a word.
“Seriously, I am sure there will be an awful lot of interest in the game and I can see them having a good World Cup as well. Hopefully they will come back with 10 injuries and we can pick them off in September. You never know. For our players, the prospect of playing England at Wembley is a terrific incentive. If our young players get more game time in, and progress as we think they are capable of, it will be great.”
Toshack’s main concern is that Wales have more luck with injuries than in their World Cup qualifying campaign. “When you look at us and England, we have 11 players who play in the Premier League and two of them are goalkeepers. You can see the difficulties we have with four or five injuries. We need a bit of good fortune on the injury front which we never had the last time around.
“If we make mistakes or pick the wrong team, or concede late on, that’s down to us, but we would just hope to have our best players available.”
Toshack believes it will be more difficult for teams to come to an agreement over when to stage fixtures given the new guidelines which allow weekend games to be played on Friday or Saturday and all midweek fixtures on Tuesdays.
“I can see that being difficult this time around for all the groups. I can see a lot of these meetings to decide the fixtures being thrown out and it all going to Uefa to decide. A lot of countries are not accustomed to playing on Friday evening and won’t want Saturday-Tuesday either.
“In this country, our players are accustomed to playing Saturday-Tuesdays so I can see fixture meetings this time around having a lot of problems and not being easy to come to an agreement.”
For full story go to here
England and Wales to learn Euro 2012 schedules on 15 March
• Meeting to be held in Switzerland
• Capello thought to favour autumn games
England and Wales’s qualifying fixtures for Euro 2012 will be decided in Switzerland on 15 March.
The date was agreed in Warsaw yesterday following the draw and the meeting is almost certain to be attended by the national managers Fabio Capello and John Toshack, who will be keen to get the schedule they feel suits their sides.
Capello got his wish for a five-team group and Switzerland is the obvious meeting point to decide the fixture schedule, given that Group G also involves the Swiss, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
The England manager will want to play the most difficult fixtures during the eight dates available in September and October 2010 and 2011, as that is the time of year when he feels English players are at their most productive, before an arduous domestic campaign.
He may try to avoid qualifying games in June 2011, knowing that Bulgaria and Montenegro can get uncomfortably warm at that time of year.
For full story go to here
Fabio Capello refuses to relax despite England’s encouraging draw
• England face awkward derby against John Toshack’s Wales
• Scotland draw European champions Spain in tough group
Fabio Capello claimed his side would “not be able to play a single qualifying game relaxed” but privately the national manager might concede that England’s prospects of qualifying for the 2012 European Championship appear far from daunting.
The draw for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine cast England into one of the three groups of five teams, with Switzerland the only other side to have qualified for the summer’s World Cup finals. They avoided any energy-sapping trips to the furthest reaches of the continent and, although Wales will provide an awkward local challenge, Capello will be confident of seeing off a side ranked 76th in the world.
The Welsh have not beaten the English since triumphing 1-0 at Wrexham in 1984 and were twice seen off by Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals. Capello sat next to the Wales manager, John Toshack, on his flight to Warsaw with their conversation centring on Real Madrid, where they have each coached twice. “But he was also telling me how Wales are a young team,” said Capello. “Their average age is 22 years old, and it will be a very interesting game, for me and England.
“They have good, young players, and derbies are never normal games. But it is a difficult group. We won’t be able to play a single qualifying game relaxed. Switzerland will be really tough. My first game [as England manager] was against them and I remember seeing the players in training and being really happy, and then seeing that they were not the same players out on the pitch when the match started, even if we won. When we play the Swiss again we will show that we have progressed since that first game.”
Capello’s wariness is founded on Montenegro’s presence in the section from the lowest pot of seeds, despite being ranked four places higher than the Welsh in Fifa’s current pecking order. The Swiss remain somewhat erratic, having won their qualifying group for the World Cup finals under Otmar Hitzfeld despite contriving to lose to Luxembourg in Zurich en route, while England have never lost to Bulgaria. Both Hitzfeld and Bulgaria’s Stanimir Stoilov insisted that Capello’s side will begin the group as “strong favourites”, the latter adding that his team were merely “targeting second place”.
Yet Toshack will point to a clutch of promising players as cause for optimism if the personnel continue to gain experience in the Premier League. “We only have 10 players in the Premier League, and two of them are goalkeepers, and it’s very difficult to get out of these qualifying groups with six or seven players from the Championship,” he said. “So we have hope the likes of David Edwards at Wolves, Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal, Jack Collison at West Ham and Tottenham’s Gareth Bale continue to play regularly if we’re going to stand a chance of getting anywhere.
“England are a top side, we realise that. They probably start as one of the favourites to win the World Cup this summer. But my players will be excited by the prospect of this group, and the games against England in particular, and we will give it a go. My lads will relish the challenge ahead.”
The Scots have arguably been handed the most onerous task if they are to reach the finals in Poland and Ukraine, with the European champions Spain and the Czech Republic awaiting in Group I. “It is exciting,” said the new Scotland manager, Craig Levein. “You’re talking about some of the best players in the world, and drawing Spain will capture people’s imagination. They will be formidable opponents.
“Spain are an outstanding side – they won the European Championships, and that’s all you need to say. I also think the Czech Republic [whom Scotland play in a friendly on 3 March] are a fantastic team. But this is an opportunity for us to do our best and, if we can pick up points against all of the teams in the group, you just never know.”
The Republic of Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, has called upon his team to summon similar spirit to that which so nearly earned them a place at the summer’s World Cup as they confront a group that includes Russia and Slovakia.
“We will start with the same mentality we had three months ago against France [in the play-off],” said Trapattoni. “If we begin with the same mentality, we have the possibility to qualify. Russia will be difficult and Slovakia are a technically good team with a very tough mentality.”
Northern Ireland, meanwhile, must attempt to emerge from a section that includes the reigning world champions Italy and the World Cup qualifiers Serbia and Slovenia.
“I can see teams in that group taking points off each other,” said the national coach, Nigel Worthington.
“You want to be tested against the best and Italy are just that. Serbia are a very good team, we had Slovenia last time in the World Cup qualifiers so we know all about them. Brian Kerr is with the Faroe Islands now and knows the British game inside out so that doesn’t make it any easier.
“We’ve got to make sure we are switched on. There is plenty to battle for and we’ve got to make sure we are at our most professional and disciplined so we get the most out of the games. It will be difficult but we have a fighting spirit and will go into the campaign with great belief.”
