GERRARD BACKS YOUNG

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has said that Manchester United winger Ashley Young can be the surprise package for England at the Euro 2012. It has not been an ideal preparation for England going into the Euro 2012. They have been without a manager for the last couple of months following the resignation of Fabio Capello. They only recently appointed West Brom manager Roy Hodgson, who kicked off things with a 1-0 win over Norway in the first friendly. England will be facing Belgium in the second friendly match before heading off to Poland and Ukraine.

England are in the group containing one of the dark horses France, while they also have to negotiate co-host Ukraine along the way. Hence, Roy Hodgson has said that it is certainly not an easy task to get into the quarter-final stage of the competition, which has long been the hurdle for England. Ashley Young, who has had his critics over the diving issue in the last couple of months at Manchester United, silenced his critics by scoring the only goal of the match against Norway. It was an entirely different line-up selected by Roy Hodgson for this match, who is expected to resort to his best starting line-up for the match against Belgium.

‘Ashley is a good player and when he plays that withdrawn role off the front man and gets in between the lines, he is very dangerous and skilful. Opposing defenders and midfielders don’t know how to pick him up because he finds the space so well. He is in good form for England and is scoring a lot of goals at the right time with the Euros coming up. We are really pleased with Ashley’s performance and I thought him and Andy look decent together,’ said Steven Gerrard in praise of the player, who now occupies his position.