I NEVER thought I would be saying it but England's World Cup saviour could come in the unlikely form of Gareth Barry.

Just to get it straight, I am not a big fan of the Manchester City midfielder.

He is certainly not world class and wouldn't hold a torch to some of the tournament's better holding midfielders.

What he will do though is give England some balance and, boy, don't we need it.

How many more times do we need to find out Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard can't play together in the centre?

Surely it is time to stick Gerrard just behind Wayne Rooney in attack, Joe Cole on the left and lets see if we can start our tournament in earnest against Algeria on Friday night.