So much for Capello instilling some purpose into England. After a qualifying campaign that saw them largely confident and purposeful they regressed into massive underachievement and paranoid nervousness last night.
I still can’t believe how bad some players were. The midfield was dreadful — Henry Winter has written in The Telegraph singing Gerrard’s praises but he must have filed his report after four minutes. Perhaps Gerrard was the best of a bad bunch and scored a good goal but hardly a hero. We also found again that Fat Frank Lampard seems to shrink to a point of insignificance when he put on an England shirt. It seemed like he was kicking that cauliflower around from the Tesco advert — or just maybe thinking he was in Tesco’s choosing a menu for Christine Bleakley. With two attacking wingers we needed two central midfield players who were both interested in the match and could be bothered to try and play together.
If there’s one sight that seems to suggest we’ll be lucky to even get to the quarter finals, it’s Jamie Carragher coming on to play in central defence, particularly as Johnson (the toilet seat hero) had such a brainless match — hoofing the ball aimlessly upfield in the second half. Seeing as Carragher was mainly cover for Johnson, we have the prospect of being stuck with both these lumps from a club whose defence was so poor they finished seventh in the league. Why didn’t Dawson or Upson come on instead? And Gary Neville or Wes Brown should have been in the squad. And Milner was a poor choice — you can’t haul every player off after they get booked so Capello must have realised he made a mistake. At least SWP had a go but if your midfield can’t supply the ball to the two wingers then it’s like playing with nine men.
At least Capello realised before the tournament that his midfield was lacking and it’s a shame he didn’t turn earlier to the best English midfield player of the last twenty five years — the Ginger Prince himself. At least he can pass the ball better than a cauliflower.
That was the best defensively England have played 442 I can remember. One early chance caused by the desperate Milner but once he was off they were reduced to low percentage shots. England were never forced back and had great chances to win the game. Both central players got in position to score. Objectively it was one of those things.
Scholes the asthmatic at altitude nice try. He lasted 65 minutes in heat in 2004. Scholes is a great player but you’d have to have rose tints IMO to suggest he relished big games.
Perhaps I expected more from them and the US are a strong, athletic team but even at 1-0 I was watching them thinking they were playing crap going forward.
I was amazed when I heard that Capello had tried to get Scholes in the squad — and Scholes was probably right not to even think about it seriously. But it shows what sort of player England are lacking — that player could be Carrick but he ended up in Scholes’ shadow at Man Utd at the end of the season.
Without discussing the ins and outs of the Ginger Prince, great player he is, not sure taking old players is working out Carragher looked awful, King is apparently out of the cup… Barry does not come back it’s Carrick or stay as we are. Milner was played ill and is now untrustable?
I think Cap’ has suffered from the grass is greener with regard to older more experienced players he brought in over those who had qualified (Carragher and King). Indeed although the team that starts well does not always finish well did the Germans not benefit from some youth? Klose probably being their worst offender from putting 7 up on the Aussies.
One wonders if King and Milner lied about their fitness and even if they recover can the manager ever trust them again?
I thought it positive Brazil did not bring Goofy who last time I saw him for Milan had all the movement of Cyril Smith.