Walcott praises depth in England talent

England forward Theo Walcott has hailed his side’s strength in depth after their 1-0 win over Spain.

Walcott played the first 45 minutes as Fabio Capello’s side won without the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Young.

“A lot of players who came in all took their chance but that’s what we’ve got in this England team,” Walcott said.

“We’ve got so many great players in each position now.”

“Tournament football, it’s very important to have 23 very physically fit players and the players that came in did that and everyone’s got to stay on their toes now.”

The Arsenal forward praised his team-mates’ patience against an outfit who were dominant in possession for much of the match.

“Any Spanish team’s always going to have the ball for periods of time. So you’ve just got to make sure that you don’t switch off, try not to get frustrated as well,” Walcott said.

“But you start to see a bit of frustration getting to the Spanish players – a couple of bookings – it wasn’t quite happening for them because we kept on breaking them down.”

“Obviously, we were limited going forward but the most important thing was that we got the win and there were a lot of positives to take out of it.”

The 22-year-old also went on to hail the defensive effort on show at Wembley, singling out Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker.

“Our back four was absolutely fantastic – but not just them. Players who came on fitted straight in,” he said.

“Sometimes, it changes the flow of the game when you make substitutions but everyone took their chance.”

“Everyone was fantastic but especially Scott, that’s what Scott does. That’s the sort of player he is.”

“He’s so experienced and he does help us out a lot.”