England: We Need a Performance Against Andorra, And Then Croatia!

Today, Fabio Capello will come up against his first competitive challenge as manager of England.

I use the term "challenge" very loosely. No disrespect to Andorra, but England should easily be able to brush them aside. Even in the lopsided FIFA Rankings, England are 171 places above them.

We should expect 6-0 at least. But we don't, or at least I don't anymore. England just seem to lack that cutting edge that lets us score almost at will against the weaker teams.

In the two previous meetings with Andorra, we have won 5-0 in 2006, and 3-0 in 2007. If you will remember the latter, it was by no means an inspiring performance. It took a Steven Gerrard brace and David Nugent stealing a goal in the 90th minute to get that result.

All of those goals came in the second half. The first half was dire. England fans in attendance gave Steve McLaren probably the worst abuse he received during his tenure at England at half-time in that game.

Just five England players have ever scored against Andorra, only one of which is in the squad this time round. That one is Jermain Defoe, who isn't even guaranteed a place in the starting eleven.

So where are the goals going to come from? Well, if Rooney gets it right, he could comfortably bag a hat-trick today. He will no doubt get three good chances, he just needs to put them away.

If he plays, which I expect he will do, Jermain Defoe will also get chances. Or perhaps Fabio Capello, with David Beckham or David Bentley on the right, will choose the height of Emile Heskey, in which case he could get a few chances, and create even more.

From midfield, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, and Gareth Barry can all find the net, and David Beckham will of course be a threat from set-pieces. We even have goalscoring potential in defence, with John Terry who is always a threat from corners, and Rio Ferdinand. Even Wes Brown, who opened his England account against Czech Republic, is a danger.

So we have the goal-scorers, we will have the chances, so why wouldn't we win 6-0 or more?

Yes, I know it's not that easy. Last time we played Andorra the talk was about would we win 5, 6 or 7-0. Then we struggled to win at all. And yes, it will be a tough ground to go to, with the Andorra fans being sure to give a hostile reception.

But England easily outclass Andorra in every area on the pitch, and in every area on the touchline. I see no reason why we can't thrash Andorra.

So I believe we can get not only a big win, but a good, confident performance from England today, and then we can move on to the real test - Croatia on Wednesday. However, my mind is saying a 2-0 win.