Matt Dickinson in The Times continues: ‘Sven Goran Eriksson believes that if England should face Brazil there is no one in his squad better equipped to shackle than Hargreaves.'
Roberto Carlos on Brazil's World Cup defeat of England last time around, said: "England didn't play a good game when they lost to us in 2002. I was surprised by the way they played against us as they were mainly concerned with defensive marking and stopping us from playing." (The Sun)
With Hargreaves or Jamie Carragher playing in a five man midfield history may repeat itself at the semi-finals. Some will argue those two players get preferred to Michael Carrick and Jermaine Jenas owing to better defensive qualities, although the fact they play for clubs competing regularly in the Champions League probably also helps their cause.
Paul Robinson fears the new World Cup ball may turn any player in the tournament into someone with similar abilities to strike the ball like any Brazilian.
He told England's official website: "Jens Lehmann has already come out against it. I had the foresight that the ball wasn't going to be what we're used to, so with four or five weeks to go I got my agent to get me half a dozen of them. I mixed them in with the training balls at Spurs, and for the last five weeks of the season I trained with them."
He added: "All the talk so far has been about Wayne's injury and the midfield formations. No one has mentioned the defence and that's good."
Gary Neville who goes into his fifth major tournament compared to this being Robbo's first, added: "People talk about the Brazil forwards in 2002 but they defended better than anyone." (The Sun)
Surely another missed penalty has a bigger chance of turning the supporters against any player unfortunate enough to miss one when it matters. Hopefully England have already got it out their system in 2006 after Frank Lampard was denied against Hungary, and Peter Crouch's half-hearted attempt against Jamaica flew over the bar last Saturday.
Eriksson said: "I told him (Crouch) that (the way he took the penalty) was wrong straight after the game and he apologised for it." (The Sunday Times)
At England's training camp in Germany yesterday Steven Gerrard, Carragher, Lampard, Joe Cole, Hargreaves, Stewart Downing and Jermain Defoe all scored from the penalty spot before Jenas was denied by Robbo.
After some had questioned the fee paid to Newcastle for Jenas last summer, he had a tremendous first season at the club and fully justified his inclusion by England at the World Cup in the end. Even if it hung in the balance for a while after missing the climax to the season through injury.
JJ told Tottenham's official website: "As much as people will say it has been a great season for Spurs and so on, we were all desperate to get that fourth spot. I was absolutely devastated."
"It did scare me (shin problem) because I was desperate to be involved in the latter stage of the season and there were some big games I missed out on. On the other hand, it was important for me to get my fitness back to give me the chance of going to the World Cup. The specialist told me if I played on it would have turned into a fracture so I had to be sensible about it and look after myself."
Danny Murphy who has 9 international caps, scored his only England goal to date against Paraguay in a friendly in 2002 after coming on as a half time substitute.
He may not be giving up on the possibility of playing in his first major tournament in 2008, by which time he will be in his thirties.
"It was a little difficult to come to Spurs in the middle of the season because the team had got the momentum and players were already comfortable within the system. I hadn't played for a while and perhaps my fitness was not what it should have been," he said.