Fed up with same old England

Hi folks

Welcome to my blog on the 2010 world cup. Are you tired of reading the samey media reports on the games. Fancy an alternative view from a regular armchair supporter who talks about the game in the same way you do? Then read on, amigos.

Game 1 – England vs. USA

A few days have passed. Enough time for me to gather my emotions and my composure.

It wasn’t the start we wanted. Of that there is no doubt. Worst of all, though, is that this was the England we’ve come to know, expect and dislike in all tournaments for as long as I can remember (barring Euro 96, maybe). False hopes. Hopes dashed.

In fairness the result itself is not entirely a disaster. On paper, England should beat USA easily. Their squad is made up of players who are Premier League rejects. Only one of their players would realistically make it in the England team and ironically that’s their goalkeeper - the one position where England are seriously lacking.

I’m not going to dwell on Green’s error. It was catastrophic and actually beyond comprehension. There is simply no excuse at this level.

More worrying for me is the realisation in the opening 90 minutes that this England team isn’t actually very good. There are some individuals who are genuinely world class (the likes of Rooney and Gerrard), there are others who are not but collectively they are not as good as we think they should be.

The lack of a Plan B is also causing me genuine concern. Under Sven, England were good enough to get a certain distance but ultimately were always found out for lacking variation in play and in personnel capable of effecting anything new. A reversion to hit and hope when all else was lost. Of course England have long been criticised for their inability to keep the ball and technically we are inferior to other nations. How badly we show it though. I, along with others I’m sure, had begun to believe that Fabio Capello was different. That he was not only hard nosed but he was someone who was a studious reader of the game and could instil some belief and variety into our play to help us overcome stage fright against the better opponents.

USA are not of the calibre I am referring but there was enough evidence last night to suggest that Mr Capello is no better than his predecessors and his choice of substitutions was as inept as England’s overall performance.

I expressed before my disappointment in some of the decisions made in finalising the squad. Central to that was the faith in Shaun Wright Phillips who, at best can only be billed as an impact substitute. When he decided to replace Milner which was a correct decision after a out-of-sorts 30 minutes, the sensible option would have been to bring Joe Cole into the fray and accept his initial selection had been an error. I’m no expert but even I could see that. Instead he chose SWP, the headless chicken whose performance only serves to justify my point.

The Emile Heskey conundrum is sadly worth a mention. Are England the only nation at this world cup who insist on starting with a striker who can’t score goals. It’s frightening. It’s ludicrous that we indulge a player who lacks any self belief. Unfortunately he too proved my point with a glaring one-on-one miss. When you looked closely, he had an awful lot of the goal to aim at.
I perhaps do him a little dis-service. He didn’t have a bad game. His strength in hold up was neat and tidy and his pass to set up Gerrard’s goal was cute. He simply isn’t world class though and I’m not the only one who wishes that Rooney gets his chance to become the central striker, a position from which he has scored 34 goals this season, with Gerrard in behind – a position which he has mastered in his partnership with Torres. Is it really rocket science?

So you may think I’ve focused on the negatives and glossed over the positives. OK, I’ll concede that it was a bright start and good goal. England should have built momentum from there and even after Green’s gaffe, there was plenty of time to find a winner. Truth is, England rarely looked like finding it and that’s because the system and the personnel were all wrong. Different manager, same old England, I’m sad to say.

Look out for my next post when I’ll sum up the first round of games and offer my thoughts on team of the week.

I’ll also discuss my views on who should start for England against Algeria.

Until next time...

Goops!