James fears Portuguese free-kicks
David James has warned that England must improve defensively and cannot keep relying on Wayne Rooney’s goal power to carry them to Euro 2004 glory.
And the Manchester City keeper has stressed the importance of not conceding free-kicks in the kind of dangerous areas that could be exploited by Luis Figo in the quarter-final with Portugal in Lisbon.
But at least James has video evidence to help him deal with such situations that may arise on Thursday after having seen no footage of Zinedine Zidane ahead of the opener with France when the striker scored with a deadly free-kick.
England have been swept along on a tide of Rooney-mania with the 18-year-old having netted four times in the three group matches.
But James is conscious of the fact that all four goals conceded by England have resulted from set pieces.
Two free-kicks against the physically strong and tall Croatians led to their goals in Monday’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side.
And, with James conscious of the fact that England will find it more difficult to score as freely as the tournament proceeds, he is aware of the need to tighten up at the other end of the pitch.
James said: “The likelihood of us scoring four goals again as the competition goes on becomes slimmer and we can’t rely only on scoring power. We’re definitely going to have to do a bit (defensively).
“Giving away cheap goals is something we have to work on. There’ll be a lot of fingers pointed because both goals against Croatia came from free-kicks.
“All four goals we’ve conceded have been from set plays. You have to look at your mistakes and we have to do a bit of work although Croatia scoring from free-kicks is their speciality.
“One of the lads said afterwards that it was the biggest and strongest side we are going to face in the tournament. I don’t think we’re going to come up against that now in the competition.
“But we do have to take the necessary precautions and do the homework on Portugal. We know what Figo and also Ronaldo are capable of doing and they might fancy a pop at goal.”
James admitted: “I will study videos of free-kicks by Figo. I think the fact I had no video to watch of Zidane was taken slightly out of context because if he hasn’t been taking set-plays, which was the case, then you’ve got nothing to study.
“But Portugal, with their skill and technique, will create free-kick opportunities around the box and we have to keep those to a minimum.
“We’ll also have to be aware of Ronaldo. He is timing his run into top form annoyingly well. He looked very sharp against Spain.”
James is as impressed as anyone else in the England squad with the exploits of Rooney who collected his second successive man of the match award from UEFA.
But he revealed that his ability to fit in off the pitch as much as he contributes on it had helped to seal his place in the side.
James said: “Wayne is spot on. It’s annoying that at his age I wasn’t acting like he is. He is a rare talent. There have been a lot of very good teenagers through this years. This guy knows what he is doing.
“He fits in the side well and you have to appreciate Mr Eriksson’s point of view that, regardless of his footballing ability on the field, if he didn’t fit into the team off the field then he wouldn’t be in.
“It’s encouraging for us because we’re not worried about him being a loose cannon after scoring a few goals in a big competition.
“He is the same lad now as he was three weeks ago. After games he just gets on the phone to home, probably to see how his dog is.”
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