By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

England go into their first Euro 2012 qualification game against Bulgaria at Wembley tomorrow night with a very different squad from that of the World Cup in South Africa.

David James and Ledley King have both been left out by Capello. James’ omission is most likely to be due to Capello giving the younger ‘keepers a chance with one eye on James’ advancing years. King will have been left out due to his persistent injury niggles. He’s a great player on his day, but you can never be sure whether he will be fit. England duty coupled with his Spurs commitment is likely to be too much for his crumbling knees.

Emile Heskey has thankfully decided to hang up his boots on his less than glittering international career. A quite frankly embarrassing goal-scoring record for his country was something that didn’t go unnoticed and many England fans won’t be sad to see the back of him. Jamie Carragher has also retired permanently after a brief return to the international fold during the World Cup.

Aaron Lennon is a bigger miss for England. His absence is thought to be due to an ongoing ankle injury, but his performances at the World Cup didn’t exactly warrant an automatic place in the squad. The ‘blow’ of his absence will be greatly softened by an electric start to the season by Theo Walcott who has scored four goals in his last two games for Arsenal. Capello will probably be wondering why he didn’t take him to South Africa.

England’s biggest immediate problem is their lack of experienced centre-backs. John terry and Rio Ferdinand are both out injured. The most likely pairing will probably be Upson and Jagielka. Capello had the following to say about the two playing together:

“I’m not concerned but I know that the central defenders will play for the first time together tomorrow.

“I hope they will be really focusing every moment of the game and I hope the full-backs Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson will help these two players, and also the midfield too.”

New defensive pairings are notoriously hard to get right first time, and this is a big weakness which the Bulgarians will look to exploit. To make matters worse, Upson had a fairly dire season for West Ham last campaign, and he also looks to be losing what little pace he had. Jagielka is promising, without being brilliant for Everton. He’s a good player, but he doesn’t look international class by any stretch. For a position in which the England team used to be blessed with fantastic players, they look very thin on the ground at the moment. As for Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson helping them out – this isn’t really what they are best at. They are wing-backs who are in their element when in attack. They won’t want to have to hang back to help out a nervous couple of centre-backs.

Lampard is another notable absentee – out with an injury. However, this might make things easier for Capello. Lampard’s England form has not been good of late, whilst Steven Gerrard had an excellent game in their previous friendly against Hungary, chipping in with two fantastic goals.

Peter Crouch has also pulled out of the squad with a back problem. Intriguingly – and perhaps foolishly – Capello has decided not to replace him with anyone else in the squad. It’s a decision which has left many puzzled. It seems nonsensical to go into a game without your full complement of squad members, and it also will do no good at all for the confidence of English strikers looking to get in at the fringes. Perhaps Capello feels there is no one good enough to fill the void. Crouch has an excellent scoring record in qualifying games, and he will be a miss for England. Rooney will surely start against Bulgaria, probably partnered by Defoe, but it would be nice to see Darren Bent coming off the bench for an appearance. He has a great scoring record for Sunderland of late, and he deserves to show Capello what he can do on the international stage.

Despite their defensive deficiencies, this should be a game which England win easily. They have much more talent than Bulgaria who look a much less threatening force without their talisman Dimitar Berbatov who has recently retired from International duty. England will want to shake off the bad memories of the World Cup with a good performance, but any signs of nerves at the back and Bulgaria will surely go for the jugular.