sport

Fabio's Formation Dancing Dilemmas...

We know Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney will play up front and we know Rio will be at the centre of defence, but we know precious little else about Wednesday's England line-up. Fabio has some decisions to make...

THE FORMATION
Playing 4-3-3 for 45 minutes reaped a 0-0 scoreline while playing 4-4-2 for the same period of time brought a 5-1 win, so there are no big prizes on offer for guessing which formation England are likely to use in Belarus. Wayne Rooney is at his best playing through the middle (something Sir Alex acknowledged shortly before banishing him to the right wing again) and England struggle for width with three central midfielders. Fabio Capello was right to experiment against Kazahkstan, but the encouraging thing about the Italian is that he's quick to change things if it's not working, and he's not daft enough to try again in a potentially tricky fixture.

THE GOALKEEPER
There are still question marks over David James and Scott Carson's form for West Brom have certainly made a case for change. But Capello is no Steve McClaren - Carson will get his international reprieve in a friendly and for now at least James will remain No. 1.

THE CENTRAL DEFENCE
Watching Matthew Upson nervously blunder his way through the Kazakh game served as a reminder that he has played most of his football at middling clubs like Birmingham and West Ham and has had little experience of European football. He looked nervous and he played nervous. Capello has a choice - stick with Upson and hope he fares better, move Wes Brown into the centre of defence (where he has rarely played over the last two years) or bring in an out-of-form Joleon Lescott. The smart money is probably on him sticking with Upson and hoping Rio Ferdinand can keep him a little calmer this time round.

LEFT-BACK
The obvious choice is Wayne Bridge, but Wayne Bridge has played seven minutes of Premier League football this season and his only starts have come in the cups against Portsmouth and CFR Cluj. Quite why he is still regarded as England's second-choice left-back when he practically announced his retirement with the signing of a new Chelsea contract is an issue for another day, but before Capello blindly throws him in against Belarus he should probably watch a DVD of the game against Croatia last season. The problem is that his alternative is Lescott. We wonder whether Gareth Barry will volunteer the information that he used to be a very competent left-back indeed...

RIGHT WING
Whisper it but Chris Waddle may have been right when he suggested that Theo Walcott would be better off returned to the bench against Kazakhstan. There is a growing feeling that Capello may belatedly take his advice. Belarus will not sit back and defend at home in Minsk and Capello may indeed prefer the less-cavalier option of David Beckham or even Shaun Wright-Phillips, with Walcott an option to petrify them with his pace late in the game.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD
There must be part of Fabio that thinks 'balls to the lot of you, this can work' when it comes to Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, particularly with Gerrard making all the right noises about curbing his tendency to wander. We certainly will not have seen the last of that pairing - particularly when Joe Cole's return forces another re-think - but for now it appears more likely that Capello will pair Gareth Barry with AN Other. That AN Other will probably be Frank Lampard after they dovetailed impressively against Croatia in Zagreb.

LEFT WING
We probably should not have used the word 'wing', because the likelihood is that whoever plays there will go nowhere near the wing. Gerrard is probably the most obvious option through a combination of a) Capello being reluctant to drop one of England's two most natural footballers and b) a lack of a pressing alternative. Wright-Phillips is an option but Capello is unlikely to be so gung-ho as to include both him and Walcott, while Stewart Downing even managed to look poor against Andorra. If Owen Hargreaves was in the squad, we may well see Barry there - but he is needed in the middle. It will be a surprise if someone other than Gerrard gets the nod for a potentially difficult game.

Sarah Winterburn