Will England miss Beckham?

We asked two top footballing celebrities, Everpool Rovers’ coach Glenn Keegan and France 98 mascot, Footix: will England miss David Beckham in South Africa?

YES: Beckham was arguably more important to England in 2010 than he was four years ago. The ‘untouchable’ nature of Beckham under Sven Goran-Eriksson hampered any midfield experimentation and meant that the right-wing was a perpetual pace-free zone. But Steve McClaren discovered that it was not easy to dispense with Beckham’s skills! Beckham offers experience, confidence and his exceptional passing ability. Of the current England squad, he is also the only player with transnational club experience having played in Spain, Italy and the US. He was likely to be used as a substitute by Capello in South Africa and would have exerted substantial influence within this role. The presence of the Beckham brand can inspire England and instil fear in the opposition. However, it’s not just the intangible qualities of his image that renders Beckham such a potent weapon, but his enduring ability. Beckham would experience no inferiority complex if introduced against teams such as Spain or Brazil. When England played Spain in 2009, Beckham instilled some direction to a team which had (until his introduction) been comprehensively outplayed. His presence, dead-ball ability, work-rate and confidence mean that he would have been one of the most effective impact substitutes at World Cup 2010. There is no other player available to Capello who offers Beckham’s attributes. His absence increases the chance for players such as Carlton Cole and Stewart Downing to make the 23. Whilst these players would be useful additions to the squad, they don’t quite have the Becks-factor!

NO: Even before his injury, Beckham’s place in the squad cannot have been assured. Capello has some difficult decisions to make with regard to wide-midfield but has enough players to choose from. Beckham made a decent contribution to England’s qualification campaign, but the only match he started was the home qualifier against Andorra. He played well in this game from a deep central-midfield position, but no team in South Africa would afford him so much space and time. Beckham would undoubtedly offer certain qualities to Capello, but he was a luxury that could be accommodated rather than a squad essential. Every midfielder selected for the World Cup should be pushing for a starting place, but Beckham would only have been included as a substitute. This is a vital role, but Capello still has players with the capacity to stir up the team’s skill-mix if they are called into action from the bench. Stewart Downing offers natural width on the left, James Milner offers versatility, hard-work and confidence, whilst Walcott, Wright-Phillips or Lennon offer genuine attacking threat down the flanks. Beckham’s presence and dead-ball ability shouldn’t really have sufficed to supplant any of these players. At Germany in 2006, England depended on Beckham’s dead-ball ability as they didn’t have the team shape or vitality to contrive an attack from open play. With England performing with more coherence and verve under Capello, this should mean that they don’t miss Beckham too much in 2010.