SACKED England coach Derek Fazackerley reckons youthful exuberance will override lack of experience in Italy tonight.

The former Blackburn Rovers stalwart is backing Peter Taylor's famously young side to give a good account of themselves against what is likely to be a strong, experienced Italian team.

Fazackerley, who was shown the door after Taylor's appointment as England's caretaker coach last month, has worked with all but two of the current squad and agrees that if they're good enough, they're old enough.

"Peter obviously thinks the young players have got enough ability to overcome the experience they lack and also when you are forced to play youngsters the youthful exuberance can often overcome the lack of experience," he said.

"Certainly for a game or two I wouldn't expect it to be a problem. For a number of games it might become a problem, but certainly as a one-off I don't think it will be a great miss.

"Peter has said on the record he wouldn't have chosen the same squad if it had been a competitive game.

"He would possibly have employed the likes of Keown, Adams and one or two other more senior players but he can approach this differently because it is a friendly and because he is only in charge for one game, for the moment anyway.

"I think there's only two in the squad that haven't been involved before, Michael Ball from Everton and Seth Johnson from Derby. I know the rest of them very well. They are all potential internationals."

Taylor has selected no new caps to start the game at the Stadio Delle Alpi tonight, and even though some of the side have little experience on the international stage, many have played for their clubs in Europe.

"They are getting experience now with their clubs at European level which some of the older players missed out on because English clubs were banned from Europe when they were coming through. "Over the next 18 months the potential for the England team is very very good. There is certainly a good crop of young players about.

"But they must continue to develop as they are doing now and bridge the gap between being outstanding Premiership players to being top-class international players. The future is bright."

With a new boss, Giovanni Trapattoni, the Italians have threatened to play the game 'like a World Cup qualifier'.

"I think they will put a very strong side out," said Fazackerley. "They will be trying to impress their new boss, but I don't think there will be more than a goal in it."

The English have a new boss to impress too and Sven Goran Eriksson will watch the game from the stands.

Fazackerley says he would have preferred an English choice.

"Like everyone else, I would have preferred an Englishman to manage the England team," he said.

"I know there are Englishmen who are quite capable of doing the job and I would have liked it to have seen one of them given a chance.

"But if Eriksson is successful people will very quickly forget he is from Sweden.

"The problem will be if he doesn't bring success to the team, because he will be judged more harshly and more quickly.

"I don't think the players will have a problem because they are professionals. The Arsenal players play for a Frenchman, the Liverpool players play for Frenchman, the Chelsea players play for an Italian, the United players play for a Scotsman, what difference would it be when they go to the England team, as long as they are successful?

"They will judge him on ability not nationality."

Fazackerley knows from first-hand experience how tough the England job can be.

"The team has to be successful," he said. If not, life can be a little bit difficult as one or two managers in the past have found.

"I wasn't the one who was directly under pressure from some of the media attention the England manager gets, but I have experienced it second hand.

"I learned all sorts of things from my time with England. It is really no different to working with players at club level but the stakes are so much higher and if you learn anything you learn that you can't mistakes.

"We lost four games under Kevin (Keegan), but they were two important ones in the European Championships, and against Scotland and Germany, who are our two main rivals.

"You get the intense media analysis if it goes wrong, down to what time you got up in the morning to what time you went to bed to what you did in training and how the players relax and unwind.

"Everything is put under the microscope."