Omari Hutchinson was one of the few England players who played with any real freedom in the (improved) second half against Germany at the Uefa Under-2s. The Ipswich Town winger, nurtured at Chelsea, Charlton and Arsenal, created Alex Scott’s goal in the 2-1 loss and spoke post-match on…
On the difference for the team and himself without centre-forward Liam Delap, his old Ipswich team-mate now off with Chelsea at the Club World Cup. “I guess you could say that he gives a different presence to the team and he makes some stuff easier than what other players can do. But, look, we've got a great squad. Everyone's able to play upfront.” But for Hutchinson himself, given their old Ipswich connection, is Delap missed? “Yeah. What he does off the ball and he's a goalscoring striker. So, yeah, it's kind of a shame he's not here.”
On which wing he prefers. “I'll probably say right, but as long as I'm playing, I don't care. He (Carsley) backs me to dominate my opponent and that's what I try to do at my best.”
On what went wrong in the first half against Germany? And what did Carsley say at half-time? “We were losing our duels, our second balls and that's the one thing that he's big on. He wasn’t happy. Sometimes you need a wake-up call and second half we could have gotten another two goals. We haven't been clinical. I just had to put more intensity into my game and just keep getting at my man and hopefully get a nice cross, assist or goal.”
On the challenge posed by Spain in Saturday’s quarter-final. “They're very good on the ball, so we want to be dominant. We can be physically better than them. We’ve just got to physically outrun them and take them to the final whistle.We just want to be able to dominate and win by two goals really.”
On whether he will take a penalty. “Yeah, 100%.” On practising pens. “Sometimes but not really. At Ipswich I wasn't the penalty taker. Now there’s going to be pens then I'm going to start practising in training.”
