“It only takes a moment of brilliance for him to have an impact”
With a strong core of English players, during the summer we asserted that it could be to the benefit of England and last night as England beat Bulgaria in Sofia there was very much a United influence on the result with Wayne Rooney grabbing two goals playing alongside team mate Ashley Young.
The game also saw the debut of Chris Smalling who, although not playing in his preferred center back position, put in a solid shift at right back.
This is just another notch on Smalling’s belt following a meteoric rise last season and he spoke to the BBC about the perfect start to his season, playing at right back as well as playing with a special talent in Wayne Rooney,
“My first month or so couldn’t have gone any better, so hopefully the season can carry on like this.
“I’m really enjoying my football. It’s gone like a dream.
“I didn’t see myself playing regularly at right-back for Manchester United or making my England debut in that position.
“Hopefully I can do the job for the minute but I feel my future definitely lies at centre-half. I feel Fabio Capello and Sir Alex Ferguson are great people to be backed by so hopefully I can carry on doing that job and they will have faith in me.”
Speaking of his club and international team mate Smalling stated,
“It is great for me to play with such a special player and special talent for club and country. You can see it only takes a moment of brilliance for him to have an impact on the game and it is making our job at the back a lot easier when he’s scoring a lot of goals.”