So what's wrong with England?

Fabio Capello is a great coach, with an outstanding record at club level, but he will really have to earn his megabucks salary from the Football Association if he is to turn this team of Premier League superstars into winners on the world stage in South Africa two years' hence.

Perhaps we are overreacting. It is never anything other than black and white in this business, which is why it is risky to post a blog entry within an hour of an England defeat. But what did you, the fans, feel about the nature of the performance in the 1-0 friendly reverse by France in Paris? Was it as bad as we made out, or is there cause for optimism?

Feel free to post anything you like about the match, good or bad. Among the many talking points we would like you to consider are:

How can Capello get the best out of Wayne Rooney, who is an undoubted talent?
How well did you think David Beckham played and do you think that was his last appearance in an England shirt?
What did you think of Rio Ferdinand and did he do enough to earn the England captaincy on a full-time basis?
Why do England often only look like scoring from setpieces?
Who was your man of the match?

Please leave us your comments at the bottom of this post.

Comments

[Roamer]

That was not so bad. Defeating the french in france is not such an easy task.
But then again, i wouldnt expect a team run by Capello to play offensive, brilliant football, but a modern one,surely so. And that was his intention.
There is something about some team jerseys that can inspire players, make them feel proud:That is what Beckham should be remembered for, and seems to be lacking in the Gerrards and Terrys.
And, for a cold, sobering tone.England has only won the Cup once, more than forty years ago, at home.Expectations should be realistic or will always crush into reality.

[P.Hooper]

Rodrigolousada,You are half right there are to many foreign players in english football,and to many foreign managers. The other half uneducated comments do not take the day.

[RodrigoLousadaBrazil]

Ben,

First of all I wasn't being rude on my comment.If you think that criticizing the great-super-fulloftitles-british football is being rude, I'm sorry but I'll stick to it.

I was not talking about the BRA x SWE newspaper's notes AFTER the game. I was talking about the importance not given by the english press BEFORE the game. You didn't give a sh...!

The Spicy Beckham was in Brazil a couple of months ago. Even though we have at least 10 players much more skilled than him, quite a lot of brazilians and the media paid full respect on him and gave the deserved attention. If your super-great-awesome english team happen to play in our humble country all the papers will talk about it even knowing that we are the best in the world and would deserve a better cover from the media in England.

Anyways, Even without all the media attention the stadium was packed with people.

And Yes! We played awfull last night but we are Brazil, even playing the worse of our football we still can win. Not the case of you guys.

By the way, you are being generalist calling brazilians rude just because you saw a couple of them with bad behaviour last night.
Would you be OK if i assumed that all the brits are like animals based on your hooligans?

Peace out

[James]

erm, what were we expecting? To whip France away from home in our new manager's second game in charge of a team that was so woeful in trying to qualify for Euro 2008. If Man Utd lost 1-0 away in the Champions League would we be telling Ronaldo or anyone else for that matter to retire?

If you cannot at least appreciate what he (Capello) was trying to do then why are you even watching the game. Incidentally, if anyone should retire in the post match fall out here, it is Tony Cascarino. He is pointless.

[PH]

It is nice to see Martin Samuel not rushing to pour scorn on everything English when every other person in the media seems to be revelling in our 'plight' at the moment.

First thing's first. We didn't play well, individuals (by and large) didn't perform and it showed that Capello still doesn't quite know how the team will work and with what personnel and where. However, i think people are forgetting a few factors, firstly we were playing against a very solid French back four supported by two defensive minded central midfielders in Makelele and Toulalan who played a deep counter attacking game; chances were always going to be at a premium. Secondly, not only is the pedigree of this French team seemingly lost in the hyperbole of the English press (they are World Cup finalists) but we were also away from home, in Paris. Third, it was obvious that some players were still feeling the effects of 'Super Sunday', particularly Gerrard (who was practically anonymous) and Joe Cole. Fourth, i think we are asking too much of Capello too soon, how many days has he had with his players overall? 5 or 6 days training perhaps, compare that to Domenech; incomparable i think you'll find.

Lets just look at the simple things, we kept possession against a very good team away from home and although we didn't create chances except from the odd cross and set pieces the French on their own soil were limited to a single shot on goal in the first 45 (withstanding the penalty). Personally i think the signs are promising, for the first time in...well, since i started watching England play football we didn't just pass it 3 or 4 times before hoofing it upfield because we got bored, this is a great platform to build on. It's just a shame that a majority of the press in this country cannot see it...or do but don't want to say it..?

Finally, can i just comment on the utter arrogance and narrow mindedness of Ray Wilkins please, in his post match report for Sky he delivered a damning verdict on the players (fair enough, opinions are opinions) and went on to compare the French defense to the defense you happen accross in the Premiership. I think he said something like: "Our England players perform and destroy the defenses in the premiership, and since we have the strongest league in the world and thus the strongest defense we must surely be able to break down the French?" Am i the only one able to see the multiple flaws in this statement? Apart from the obvious, that no team in the Premiership plays with 2 holding centre mids not to mention perhaps only 2 teams could claim to be better than the one put out by Les Bleus (the top two teams).

It is ignorant comments like that that continue to create footballing neanderthals in this country.

P.S. please no more Peter Crouch, what is the point of having a target man that cannot head the ball. And stop aiming for him from defense, because our midfield are still in their defensive positions so the ball is returned straight to the opposition. It's simple tactics.

[Bernardo Camacho]

Beckham is the best player England has!!! He has the ability to change a game. He gives everything when he plays, unlike many other superstars. His crosses are very helpful and he can always deliver in one of his freekicks. He´s the English player that wears the shirt with most honour and pride. Stop the criticism

[dylan]

Lets put this to bed once and for all. England are no way near as good as they think are. When it comes to technical ability, things like close control, dribbling skills and being able to think 3 or 4 moves ahead, we are literally streets behind other nations. Unfortunatley, most people, including the players, are influenced by the media hysteria that proclaims our players as world class. Remember our record in the Champions League before the influx of foreign players? We were rubbish. We are only good now because our top 4 teams barely have an Englishmen in them. Our overtly physical culture is our downfall - any skilful child in this country gets lumps kicked out of him with no protection from refs. Net result, they give up on attempting to be creative using close control & dribbling skills. This is the price we pay for championing strength over skill. When our clubs look for skill, we hire it from abroad. We can't do this for our international team - hence why we're not very good.

[richard williams]

I don't think James should get all the blame for the goal, it was more Terry's fault as he dropped James in it with his bad defending. Why are the press saying Ashley Cole played well, he was terrible.

[Jack in Texas]

What's wrong with England is the media. Capello did what he set out to do and the media call it appauling loss. Get rid of the the media and let England play football. I say we deport one entire media company to the Arctic for every win England have this year. By years end England will be confident and winning again.

[Bob Bobbins]

Capello should take chance and pick new players. The same old players are clearly lacking and have been for some time.The back four apart from Cole is bereft of pace. If you are playing Terry or Ferdinand then they need a quick player beside them. Brown is not a right back and Lescott is too slow for the international game.
Beckham was the best player on the pitch and must be a contender for the captaincy again, as who else?Bentley can play on the left and would do well there. Still think Stevie G and Frank are the best in the middle at least Lampard scores a few and links up the attack. England would be silly to discard him.Up front I see England's biggest problem as they lack pace and someone who can lead the line. Ashton surely must be given a chance along with Owen or one of the young guns.
Surely time to take a chance Mr Capello, there is no better time to do so!

[Natarajan]

I don't know why so much criticism of just Beckham. He delivered what we all knew: occasional crosses, but slow. Actually, I will not write him off, yet. He will be a useful squad player. But a number of others, e.g.,Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole(s), Brown,Crouch have never delivered in a England shirt and never will: so time to say goodbye to them. Michael Owen similar to Beckham - great in the past but beyond sell by date, might be a squad player. The only one who played well was Owen Hargraves. The only truly world class player we have is Rooney and we need to figure out how to make him succeed. Rio is a good bet. Some others e.g. Bentley, Carrick worth trying and some others like Wright-Philips and Lennon have been tried and failed. Time to write off serial floppers once and for all and start with some untested talent - they won't do worse.

[Btqkwbd4]

Why so much praise heaped upon France? They must be the most overrated team in Europe (England can no longer be described as this).France have not had a great side since euro 2000 when you know who made them a great side. They are still heavily reliant on the old guard- Thuram, Gallas, makelele, Trezequet et al. Trezequet may be able to score against Brescia or Palermo every week but he's done virtually nothing at international level along with Anelka. Their younger players are decidely average- toulalan especially. Also, people harp on about them being "technically efficient" etc but there are many better European teams out there- croatia, holland, czech rep, germany, italy...

[Syed]

Gerrard was again Rubbish. Don't understand why he plays every match for England.

[James P]

The midfield is just not performing. It isn't mixing well with our forwards (whatever people say, Rooney IS world class and Owen WILL get you goals provided the service- that he's scoring for Newcastle says it all). So what is going on? Becks is past it, he cannot run himself into the right places to control games anymore - so let's see Bentley on the right. In the middle, Gerrard just isn't bringing his Liverpool heroics to the table. I say give Lampard a good go. And on the left our only answer is Joe Cole who plays predominantly on the right for Chelsea! When the passes between the midfield and forwards start to stick, we will see success for the team. I just hope that happens before it's too late - the 2010 qualifiers are looking pretty scary right now.

[Scud in Maidstone]

Already the press attacks the manager !

The system was fine. The problem was that too many key players went missing in action.

Gerrard, J Cole ? where were they?

J Terry is overrated, and lacks pace. Without Makalele he is shown up.

Ashley Cole's crossing was terrible and wasted so many good situations.

My concern is that the manager should only be playing footballers who are in good form. Crouch is not playing regularly and so should not be picked at all.

Becks' inclusion ahead of Bentley seems to have affected Bentley's confidence. The manager should make him number one in that postion and have Becks as a squad and impact player.

Carrick would do a better job than Barry, by a country mile.

Hargreaves had a good game and if all the players put in the same effort he did then we would be toasting a victory.

Rooney needs support, but as Gerrard went missing, he was forced to come deep, and you could see his frustration with some of the tackles he was making.

Owen's time has been and gone.

Defoe. Ashton. Agbonlahor. Young. These guys should be ahead of Owen.

2 games played, early days, let the manager manage, but you cant blame him if the players don't turn up.

Football ! A game of opinions, but sportwriters need to cosey up to the players to get their stories, so much easier to throw rocks at the manager, especailly if he is foreign.

Shame on you.

[gordon]

What makes the Premier League great to watch is the high tempo end-to-end play, based on quick forward passes to players moving up the field, into space away from the man in possession (mip). It works for established teams because the players get to know each others’ strengths and weaknesses, and can pass more or less instinctively. Most of the passes have a relatively low probability of success, so possession switches quickly between teams, but they know that they’ll get the ball back in 3 or 4 passes time.

The England team tries to play the same way, with players ‘bomb bursting’ away from the mip, but because of their lack of familiarity with each others’ play he has to look up to see where they are and every fraction of a second’s delay makes the required pass longer, and enables the opposition to close down both him and the forward receivers. End result, it’s either a long hopeful ball to players who are isolated and who’ve run out of manoeuvre room, or a back pass, and the team quickly loses its shape when possession is lost. Beckham stood out in the past because his long hopeful balls were better than most, especially when he had a clubmate on the receiving end. Very few England players now have many clubmates in the international squad, and the more changes that are made to the squad further dilute any mutual understanding. Recent managers have traditionally picked the best individual players when what they really need are players who can play successfully together, and a pattern which enables them to do that.

Successful foreign teams play that sort of pattern. When they have the ball, players move into space towards the mip, giving him lots of quick, simple, high probability options, which are very difficult to counter. They move the ball upfield more slowly but keep possession, retain the team’s shape, and get the ball into the final third much more regularly. Individual strengths – speed, skill, shooting ability – are the icing on the cake, and with the light ball, better surfaces, and more protection for skilful play this basic pattern generates many more chances at international level. Any player can fit into the pattern easily; it looks good but isn’t technically any more demanding than the English style, and unless the opposition’s midfield and defence play well together, its individual players end up chasing the ball leaving men free. (View any England game over the past few years and you’ll see it in action)
Answer; change the pattern

[Robert Thomas, Dublin]

Just to add to some points made by some previous posts:

I think Rooney brings more to the game when he plays just off another striker (as a nine-and-a-half rather than a number 10 who plays behind- this would be Joe Cole's natural role). But with a flexible 4-2-3-1 scheme (allowing it to be a bit asymetrical), there's enough room for both of these guys (plus a wider, speedy attacker)to interchange behind and around a number 9. Problem is: now find that number 9!

I second what Hunter Malik and Tim from Leeds say about Carrick and see a connection with Thomas V's thoughts on Toulalan. Playing in the 'double pivot', Toulalan refrains from marauding, just sits deep, keeping it tidy (much like Carrick is suited to), and plays organiser to Makelele's destroyer (Hargreaves, admittedly a slightly different player to Claude and more of a pure athlete like Gattuso, can still break things up). Most Spanish teams have employed players with such compatible characteristics when playing a midfield pivot: Diarra and Gago (Madrid), Keita and Poulsen/Renato (Sevilla) for instance. Arlin Dueck, I too thought Barry alongside Hargreaves was a bit too much brawn. Brazilian teams often employ attacking full backs as makeshift central midfielders, not for their tactical nous but because they are by nature hard runners. Can't be a coincidence that Hargreaves often played right-back for Munich. One is enough. Unfortunately, Capello may deem it necessary to have two pure destroyers if the defence is leaky or the attack is overloaded (Emerson AND Diarra at Madrid, anyone?)but I reckon he'll soon see that this is not so with England, and so he'll include Carrick as his Toulalan, although I bet much of the high-tempo addicted public and press won't like it (because this kind of player hasn't really been valued in English football since WM days).

[Jul]

Well... Sven must be LAUGHIN' HIS SOCKS OFF!
Why the hell was the British press ALLOWED to hound him.
So pleased to see Man. City's performance, and we can all view how our poor new starter Capello has got to accrue the old basic understandings about the players skills that he's got to work with.
'Come back Sven ...(if you ever would consider it)!'

[ManchesterBen]

My only hope was that the half time substitutions were made so that Capello could permanently write off those players as internationals.
Crouch's continued selection can only be down to his size - yet his aerial ability is terrible.
Owen is long past it - no defenders look scared of him anymore, and without pace he has nothing.
Downing is a one-footed winger who can't run at players nor deliver a pin-point cross.

Personally, I'd like to see Lampard start the next England game.

[jose]

I think that the problem with england is the number of good foreign players in the premiership.
My point is that the competition is so fierce at club level that our so called stars are too afraid to bust a gut for England in case their club form is affected.
It was yet another boring, gutless performance from an England side that promises so much and delivers so little; I for one will not bother to watch this garbage again.
The only answer is to get players in who have the right attitude passion and heart for the fight, to come out of the traps flying with purpose and to keep going until the job is done,the sort of Dunkirk spirit we have seen with Barnsley this year,which incidently doesn't have any superstars.
Until an england manager has the courage to bring in players with the right attitude and wrong names we are never going to win anything.

[Jan]

I am not a Man Utd supporter, but I think Capello should pick as many of them as possible, because they are good and know how to play together, and then fill out with the others. This is by far a new idea, it has been used a lot of times with great success.

[Chris]

England fans have the national team we deserve. We have a league thats loaded with foreigners. Some incredible but most are average to appauling (just look at some of Liverpool's recent signings). Every fan would rather their club achieved success than England so clubs buy in foreign players by the boat load in order to achieve this, and sacrifice developing young English players in the process. England will never win a major tournament, or that many games come to think of it, while the status quo remains.

[Rece Porter - USA]

Simple tactics are missing. What causes most confusion among defenders? Forwards who run at them and take them on, continuously and ceaselessly! England never do that. Their tactics always seem to be long balls to hit a front man target, which rarely pay off. Now, will someone pay me six million to pick an England team who can attack defenders?

[Linda Stewart]

Capello shows early signs of Bertie Vogts disease - the players (that cabal who think they own the team), resent him after the comfort of McLaren, and he is frightened to make the large scale changes required. Beckham, Owen, Terry, Crouch all need to go. The squad needs freshening up in a drastic way.
Rather have young tryers who will listen to instructions than the poisonous "in group".
At least Sven took an audit of emerging talent and gave some their chance.

[Sammy A]

It will take time to play the way Capello wants to, and I belive we will start playing better, but in terms of having adequate players to succeed in 2010, I think we have huge problems. Players who seem to shine in the Premier League arent reproducing this form at international level. Why?. The Premier League flatters them, technical skill is not a complete nessicity in our dear old best League in the world. Most exciting, yes. But Wes Brown, taking all the plaudits for the Mancs, was out of his depth last night. John Terry, full of passion and endeavour? Perhaps, but he lacks the technical side of the game that is needed at this level, he was at fault for last night goal, James had no chance. Rooney is a class act no doubt, but his finishing can be dire at times, look at his last few games. The list goes on, even the players who have the pace needed to suceed and so much potential lack these vital ingredients. Lescott, Wright-Phillips, Agbonlahor, technical ability is not there. Aaron Lennon- flies past people for fun but he just cannot cross to save his life. The gap in ability will take years to solve, while we have good players, we certainly do not have a team/squad capable of getting past the second round of tournaments. Capello will make his mark, England will play better, but it will be nothing more then a short term fix.

[Ben]

RodrigoLousadaBrazil, I was at the Brazil v Sweeden match, Brazil were truly awful and only won thanks to a goal keeping error. It was not worth reporting on it was that bad. You are, like I found a lot of the Brazil fans last night, very rude my friend.

[Steve]

To play any game at the highest level you need intellect. Listen to English footballers being interviewed and compare them with most foreign players, who are speaking in a second language.

For that matter, try the test on football managers. Few British managers rise above the semi-literate.

It all goes back to our education system, which idolizes mediocrity.

[Mike]

The performance was poor from England and what worries me is that mainly the same old names were on the team sheet,who have failed us before:-James,Ferdinand,Terry,the Coles,Beckham,Gerrard,Rooney,Owen etc.etc.Add in a poor performance from Brown,and all you've got is a recipe for more failure.Somebody once said that the definition of mental illness was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.If we keep on selecting the above(plus Lampard who also disappoints at this level) we're not going to do any better.Trouble is who have we got coming through on the conveyor belt who can play better? I'm very pessimistic about the future of our game.Perhaps we should limit the number of overseas players per Premiership team,but I can't see Arsenal,Man.U or Chelsea agreeing to that.The future looks sad,but one only ray of hope is that I'm old enough to remember Alf Ramsey's 1st game as manager,also in France, and we lost and were outplayed and accused of playing "1812" style football-4 years later "they think it's all over !"

[Cameron]

The only thing wrong with the whole England setup is that you are unable to pick the technically superior Scots.

The clock is ticking, how long before the attention turn to the Italian fifth columnists that are clearly only there to undermine England's chances.

Great League, shame about the players :)

[Tim, Leeds]

I don't think there was too much was wrong with the performance. We are not and never will be a flair side. Players like Gareth Barry, although he made a decent contribution, are essentially huff and puff players. But we can be a decent tournament side and win things if we play to our strengths and I think last night's game confirmed that. We were OK in the first half. Gerrard was as usual disappointing (any chance people could stop referring to him as "world class"?) but Beckham and Rooney combined well a couple of times in the first half. The difference in the first half was the penalty, which maybe James could have avoided if he had approached the ball differently. I felt Rooney on the end of Beckham deliveries might have produced something if they had stayed on. Capello made the substitutions managers make in friendlies, which hopefully confirmed to him once and for all that Owen is past it and Crouch is very, very ordinary. Carrick should have been included in my view. But generally we weren't/aren't that bad.

[Arlin Dueck]

I cannot recall the last time England found any success playing with a 4-5-1. I also cannot recall the last time I've seen Rooney play well while alone up front. It just doesn't ever seem to work.

Playing both Barry and Hargreaves seemed a bit odd to me.

As for Beckham, I thought he did a decent enough job, but didn't stand out. Nor did anyone else, for that matter.

In the end, it was a boring game, but hardly the catastrophe some are making it out to be.

[Dan Trimble]

I thought the performance itself was ok if a litle cautious. The players actually passed the ball along the floor and kept it a lot better than they would have done under MClaren, having said that however once the ball entered the final third there was no creative spark whatsoever. Rooney lacked positional discipline - one example of this was where he spread the ball out wide to Beckham and then actually stayed on the edge of the area as Beckham crossed the ball in when he should have burst into the area. Beckham himself wasn't bad and his death knell is a little premature considering Bentley has never performed at the top top level. Rooney was awful if anything as was Owen. We looked compact and secure however although Terry was beaten for pace and position by Anelka for the penalty. The penalty itself was also a very dubious decision as Anelka clearly kicked the ball one way and then changed direction straight into David James. Anyway I suppose newspapers have to make money so blame it on Beckham seems to be the predictable morning opinion. One point to note though was that Ashley Cole was shocking for the self obsessed "best full back in the world". He lacked positional sense, gave away possession constantly and seemed to be playing for himself.

[Joanna Michaels]

Definitely dump Rio as captain. John Terry is ok but we must look to the future...and that must be Gerrard. Taking the captaincy away from him after one game is ludicrous. Beckham was a great player, but his time is up. If FC wants to mould and shape up a great team he has to have a mix of young as well as established players.

[hunter malik]

First and foremostly playing barry and hargreaves together is noway the answer. The problem in my opinion is we didn't play a striker forward enough and on the shoulder of defenders. Also if we are going to pass the ball how can we leave out the best passer of the ball who rarely gives the ball away...Michael Carrick.

[Hans David]

One defeat and already everybody thinks that England is still the same spoilt filled billionaire team that failed the Euro 2008 qualifier...

It's hard to judge Capello's performance just from 2 matches, he is a typical pragmatic Italian that puts results first. Yes, England today play a much boring football, but anyone can see the improvement in the players discipline and attitude.

Capello has handled some of the biggest ego in the football world from Totti to Batistuta and Cassano, he knows how to handle those highly paid billionaires to do their job on the pitch the right way, what he needs is time. We can't judge the England team under Capello until they perform on a more competitive stage like tournament qualifiers.

The thing is that Capello should start look for players who is often missed out from the squad. My man of the match is Gareth Barry. He proved his worth last night by being the most consistent England player on the pitch, but for some reason he is often overlooked.

[Roland Larsson]

Nothing is wrong, really. Only the expectations. You beat the Swiss earlier and lost now to France. There you are somewhere in the middle. Roughly the level of Sweden. And now to the quizz: When did England last beat Sweden? clues:
Beatles, flower power.
Roland Jakarta

[jukebox]

well..to answer your questions: -
first - to make Wayne Rooney effective is obviously by NOT playing him solely upfront, as we all have witnessed last night, he couldn't run THAT fast to even catch the Beckham balls given to him, and he is SHORT, so there's no way he could out-jump the tall defenders like the French last night. in ManUnited, he played even more deeper role as a striker, and that position is really great to him!
second - Beckham's game last night was not bad at all, in fact he was actually excellent, considering that he has never played top-flight football in 5 months before last night! and his performance was getting better in the 2nd half - he was running faster, his passing and crossing was accurate, especially the one he's given to Downing - unfortunately Fabio brought him out too early as he was gaining understanding with Downing (who was excellent on the left side), Crouch & Owen, not to mention Brown in the 2nd half. had he stayed on for 10 minutes more, i believed England would have scored with an equalizer from one of his crosses. and judging from the reactions of both England and France fans last night, and Capello's face when he was brought out, i do think that Becks will play some more. what more because Bentley played like a "totally blind man" when he was brought on for the whole 30 minutes!
third - Rio Ferdinand was doing great last night, having keep a clean sheet of the goal (exclude the penalty coz that was totally David James' fault!!)
fourth - why England always have to score form setpieces?? coz England don't have a decent, brave, intelligent striker! that's all!
lastly - my man of the match...i would agree with Frank Ribery. however, i would say in the 2nd half, i was impressed with Stewart Downing more than anyone else. if only Capello had started him last night, England probably would have won something.

[Richard Fairchild]

It's all about character. Teams adopt the psyche and belief of their leader: Alex is strong and wins, Arsene delights in finesse (above wining), Rafa is a technician (who should allow his passion to lead him, but cannot). You see these personal characteristics of the leader embodied in the style, performance and belief of the team. For England is it less about the Leader (two games in charge) and more about the collective psyche of the country.

The English revel in negativity (for example, 'mustn't grumble' instead of 'I'm Great"), celebrate second place (Frank Bruno's famous quote "I am determined not to lose" - shouldn't he have said "I am determined to win"? He lost.), and have a collective belief that the days of Winning are firmly left in the past, along with the Empire (Jaguar/Rover being bought by Tata merely serves to prove this point further). This cultural programming that takes place throughout our society prevents the Team from genuinely believing they can win.

Don't get me wrong, I love many aspects of the down-trodden Brit, but winning comes from within. England play with defeat a foregone conclusion. When we win, we are all quite genuinely surprised, and I am certain that goes for the players too.

You could see in the eyes of McClaren that he never believed we could win. He had no idea how to fix it. Capello realizes that his challenge is in the heads of these players, not at their feet.

[Roland Larsson]

Nothing is wrong with England except your expectations. You are better than Switserland and worse than France. And now on to the quizz: When did England last beat Sweden? Clues: Beatles, Flower Power, Free love.
Roland - Jakarta

[David Hygate]

I think when Don Revie was manager, England may have made more back-passes to the goalkeeper but I doubt it. The team seemed to be operating under an instruction to keep the ball at all costs. This is fine as long as you can kick it forward as well as back, but unfortunately we didn't have the confidence to do that. This was depressing to watch. Most of the Football establishment seem to have it in for Beckham (BBC pundits, journalists) but once he went off we fizzled out completely. He seems to be the only player we have who can make a decent pass. What I didn't understand was why he seemed to operate as right back while Wes Brown ran up the wing! Rooney and Gerrard were their normal disappointing selves. I can't recall Gerrard playing a good game for England and I don't know why we persist with him.
However Capello knows more about the beautiful game than most of us - especially me - so I think we have to trust in his judgement and hope he can find the key to get these guys gelling and running. He's done it before and we just have to hope he can do it again.

[Freddy]

Rooney needs to be nurtured - with sufficient practice he will "mesh" with another supporting forward. Personally I feel that forwards - Rooney included - never produce their best when pushed up front by themselves into an isolated position.

Beckham is a great player but now passed his prime. We need younger players who haven't yet peaked who will grow - with the responsiveness of youth - into their new responsibilities.

If a captain achieves success then why drop him? Liverpool's captain: Gerrard has the prestige and influence to bring the best out of players. Capello said as much when he appointed Gerrard against Switzerland. He has led his team to victory and success in the European Champions League.

It's out of date to say England look like scoring from set pieces - that was in the days when Beckham was on form!This is a new era.

Steven Gerrard was the man of the match. He made a fine header attempt from a difficult ball and as usual with fine passes created chances for other players.

[tony rocco]

I was quietly impressed with Englands first half performance, when you consider the opposition and playing in Paris, England seemed in control without penetrating. France are however a very dogged unit and despite their lack of goals at International level (when you consider their attacking potential) they often only need a goal as they rarely conceed chances. That being said I believe that Rooney should play behind Crouch with Joe Cole and Gerrard either side, despite the fact that I honestly believe Gerrard is way off the mark and has been for a long time. I often think we in England substitute passion and billboard status with natural talent and ability and whilst I do not doubt Gerrards ability he often tries the most difficult pass and shoots from very difficult angles and although he has scored some spectacular goals his goals to shots ratio would be an interesting statistic. Hargreaves is a top qulaity player and his energy was evident to see, even more so in the second half when England went back to 4-4-2 without any real protaganists on the pitch. I am afraid to say I have never been a Michael Owen fan and despite my personal feelings I have tried hard to allow myself an objective assessment but I simply cant, he seems to have lost his desire and clearly a yard or two of pace, yet another Anfield prodigy like the great Fowler himself who probably expended all his qualities at far too an early age. Achieving financial success at a staggering rate must surely dampen even the most gifted of person in any sporting field. I think John Terry is an Alamo defender, great for the gung ho premiership but seriously lacking at the top level where positioning pace and balance are more important. Joe Cole is clearly something different and it was obvious to see that when the changes came probably pre agreed with the respective managers looking ahead to a busy Premiership and Champions League calender England lacked that fluent inter passing that scattered the first half, the ability of the front four players to run at opponents, pass quickly and decisively and with the ability to shoot from both feet means that this formation is not to be locked away in room 101. England needs to understand tournament football, winning 4-3 and running around like mad men may well be exciting on Super Sunday in the premiership but in a World Cup Tournament with a game every 3 days in 90+ degree heat at the end of gruelling domestic season needs more composure, patience and concentration. Dont be too hard on this performance I honestly think 4-2-3-1 suits the players we have I just think Crouch needs to spear head the attack allowing players to join in and go past him. Finally Wes Brown has the turning circle of the Titanic. Have faith...

[wurzel downunder]

While I believe we now have a coach more than capable of turning our fortunes around, we should not expect things to change over night.

We will come out the other end a much better side, but along the way there are bound to be some casualties, and some bad results.

Lets also not over look that this was only a friendly, held at the business end of the European Leagues. Players could well have more than an eye on domestic worries, including staying clear of injury

[Liam Bradley]

I don't know how many times I will have to tell you all, but it is an absolute disgrace that the elegant, technically outstanding, quick and effortlessly excellent Jonathan Woodgate does not get a start for England.

This is a waste of an outstanding and in form player. One who could relaistically get into any international side in the world, without any shadow of a doubt.

John Terry just is not half the player technically, and certainly no better for his defensive skills.

[matthew campbell]

one thing that would certainly help is premier league players leaving to play abroad.

capello seems to want to change the old english system of 442 and when it goes wrong hack it up to the big striker and hope for the best,

hes trying to change it to a more elegant passing game which although we're more than capale of making it work its going to take time, a lot of time that im not sure we'll give him.

but the reason it will take so long is because almost every single player for england competes in the premiership, hardly a huge experience boost for playing continental teams, the champs league presents some elegant football but not enough unfortuantely.

frank lampard is one who should take the plunge, this stalling over a new contract is a good opportunity for him to expand his horizons at his peak and walk into a top european side, anyone arguing that it wouldnt hlep englands cause to be a credible smooth passing side?

x

[Matt - Singapore]

I think Capello will have learned a lot from this game and hopefully by the time these games matter he will get the team playing like we all want them to be.

The main problem last night was a lack of pace and width, in the next friendly we need to look at Lennon and Ashley Young, on the right and left respectively, to inject this into the team.

The lack of quality goalkeepers was once again made apparent with another error from David James. Robert Green has arguably been the best English goalkeeper this season so should be given his chance then hopefully by the start of next season Ben Foster will have had some minutes under his belt and will be back in contention.

Rooney obviously isn’t at his best playing up front by himself and probably played his best football for United when he was paired with Louis Saha. Agbonlahor posses many of the same attributes as the latter so should be partnered with Rooney for the next friendly.

As for Beckham, he didn’t play particularly well last night and you would think that his sharpness is only going to deteriorate the longer he is in the US, so I really think it is time to call it a day.

[james]

Beckham was as irrlevant,as pointless as he has been for the majority of his last half decade in an england shirt but this time with the added annoyance that he built into it one final great "beckham show" with all the rubbish that surrounded it during the week.Is that really what all the fuss is over,what we saw of Beckham tonight added to what weve seen in 5 tournaments where hes been so impotent against any decent standard opposition?90 minutes for Bentley would have given him invaluable experience under his belt as he looks to build his career at this level and we wasted it all on david wretched beckham just for one last jolly-up.Prove you have the backbone and the ability to move us forward from the past Mr Capello,tonight you made your first big error by starting Beckham.Never make it again and we can forget it even if the tabloid media,the celebrity media or the "great british public" dont want to wave goodbye to their nearly boy-hero figure.Cold-headed football men who once again have seen how he holds this set-up back will get it and you and everyone else,even the eternal "becks is best set",will be rewarded in the long-run.

[Thomas V.]

Man of the match : Toulalan. Controlled the midfield (along with Makélélé) and gave many balls to Anelka & Ribéry. The whole in a very humble way. Not a shining performance, but there he was.

Beckham played decently, considering England's standards. (The English team could have played much better had it not been absurdly and abruptly disfigured at half-time. Strange decision from a man who's deemed as one of the best managers in the world.)
I do believe it is a deserved honour made to Beck', earning his hundredth cap against a really prestigious side ; now, he may perhaps recover more of his talent and physical condition - even though I doubt it - but I don't think he'd make it to South Africa. I'm afraid he's already missed his last chance to win a major tournament - err, reaching the last 4 would be a more realistic goal.

Rooney should have just played more. He was the only real English threat on the pitch, while Gerrard was way too predictable for a top-class international defence. I don't even mention Crouch and, alas, Owen, as respectable choices -even if they might reach that level again.
As for Rio Ferdinand, he wasn't shining either, but did the job efficiently, which puts him in the top basket. Captaincy will need brighter performances, but tonight every other available choice was worse on the pitch.
I don't know, a team is just so subtle a gathering, that sometimes a terrible player may strenghten the whole more than a good one. I guess this is one of the other things Capello will have to work on.

[Paul G Williams]

No shame in losing 1-0 to France in Gay Paris. It's just a friendly. Lay off the pressure.

[RodrigoLousadaBrazil]

What's wrong? The wrong is that you brits r damm arrogant to not realize that the english team sucks and France has a good offensive line.

You are so cocky that couldn't care less about a game that was played in your own territory between Brazil and Sweden. I haven't seen even a note on the newspapers.

You suck and think your premier league is strong but don't realize that if all the foreign players are taken out of it, your league will be gone with worthless players and you are going to see how weak your football is. A prove of that is that you had to hire an italian coach to try to save your awfull team.