Do other nations really fear England?

England midfielder Steven Gerrard reckons that England have nobody to fear in the World Cup. He told Talksport:

“It can only be to our advantage being seeded. I don’t think we can be afraid of anyone. We’ll certainly respect anyone we come up against but, for me, I think it’s time other teams started fearing us.

“We’re going there full of confidence, we are a very good team. We’ve still got a lot to learn but, the way we’re playing, we’re a match for most teams”

Opponents not worried

Now Stevie is right with the fact that we are a good team and we do go into the World Cup full of confidence but I can’t believe the likes of Kaka , Lionel Messi and David Villa are sitting at home worrying about how they can beat us.

Is Diego Maradona at home having sleepless nights thinking I wonder how we can combat Emile Heskey? Is the thought of Peter Crouch giving Dunga nightmares? Well maybe but not for footballing reasons.

Ghana’s Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac doesn’t think his side have anything to fear from the Three Lions. He revealed:

“England have a very good coach but I think Ghana playing England wouldn’t be a problem. “Any team is okay but I don’t like Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Serbia. These teams play very good and I’d like to avoid them in the group phase, maybe in the quarter-finals or later on. Serbia is a very good team and strong and experienced too.”

Rajevac doesn’t seem like a worried man about the great Three Lions to me. It seems he fears the other four big teams more than Fabio Capello’s men. Maybe he is playing mind games just in case his side do have to face England in the group stages but maybe he’s just being honest.

An opposite view

A man who knows a bit about English football Chelsea star Didier Drogba seems to have a completely different view. He revealed:

“I hope we will be in a weaker group than 2006, when we tried to fight our way into the knockout phase but had no chance of going through. Hopefully we will be luckier this time and avoid big teams like Brazil, Germany and England,”

So Didier ranks England alongside the great Brazilians. He obviously has superb knowledge about the players in the England squad because he plays with them and against them every week. I would trust his knowledge of the English over Rajevac’s, who I know little about.

Underachieving

Maybe as an England fan I have grown cynical about our chances in major tournaments. You can’t blame us English for getting cynical because at every tournament the team attends we underachieve.

We start every tournament in the same positive mood and the press hype is unbelievable. The media sometimes build our team up so much that the fans start to believe the hype. We want success so badly that we build our team up to be something they simple are not.

The number of times I’ve watch our national side get beaten on penalties is unbelievable. My earliest football memory is of England losing the 1990 semi-final against Germany. Unfortunately in years to come it wasn’t the last time I saw the Three Lions defeated on penalties. We are the kings of the heroic exit and I’m just worried it will happen again in South Africa.

Like most proud Englishmen I really hope that this World Cup will be different. I’m not letting myself get to excited because I don’t want to get too disappointed if we make another heroic exit.

Player’s top fear

It can be argue that England as a team may or not be fear by opponents but there are certain players in the England team that will scare most opponents. The two main ones are striker Wayne Rooney and the aforementioned Steven Gerrard. Any opponent who doesn’t stop the Scouse duo doesn’t stop England. What Steven Gerrard should have said was teams should fear me and Wayne. I can’t see England getting very far without Gerrard and Rooney performing at their best.

What I want from my readers is your opinions. Are you a fan of one of England’s possible opponents in the World Cup and do you fear the Three Lions? I do believe there will be a mixture of opinion on this one.