As we all know, England have already qualified for the World Cup finals in 2010 and victory over Ukraine, on Saturday, and Belarus, on Wednesday, will see Fabio Capello's side head to South Africa with a 100% record.

But it is not all positive news according to The Guardian's Kevin McCarra, who points out that the Italian must still address significant weakness in defence and in goal.

"It has been unsettling that Rio Ferdinand and John Terry have been the centre-back pairing in only six of the Italian's 18 international matches to date. Ferdinand, in particular, has been vulnerable. The Manchester United defender is reported to receive regular treatment from an osteopath for a back problem and Capello's main hope may be that he can be eased through the programme next summer.

Durability is the key since many ultimately respected sides at finals have been scorned before finding better form. England need a back four that can be counted on.

Capello must wish that there were genuine options in goal. Robert Green has played for his country without committing any howlers, but has not seemed commanding either. The 39-year-old David James, fit again, continues to have a claim to the England spot. Paul Robinson was also in this squad, although he has a hip problem and was replaced by Joe Hart.

It is comforting to point out that Dino Zoff took the World Cup with Italy at the age of 40. All the same, that is a well-known fact exactly because he was such a rarity. Capello would, at a minimum, like a persuasive candidate to view with James or Green, but Ben Foster's standing has declined steeply at United."

Over at The Times chief football commentator Patrick Barclay turns his attention to the Republic of Ireland's clash with Italy and expects Giovanni Trapattoni's side to have to qualify via the play-offs. FIFA's decision to seed the play-offs has been much derided but Barclay defends the notion:

“The trouble is that FIFA is to seed the draw for the two-legged matches to decide the last four European qualifiers. Because football is the way it is, and because no one ever supports anything announced by Sepp Blatter - if the FIFA president defended the traditional oblong pitch, everyone would say it should be round or oval - people have moaned, even though seeding is eminently sensible, as is the idea of giving home advantage in the second leg to the notionally stronger country.

I suppose there is a germ of an argument against using the Fifa rankings, but the countries they tend to overrate are outside Europe. By and large, they tell the truth.”