I know nothing can make up for a team that just is not playing well but there are a couple of things that did literally get on my nerves about the "non - performance" of the England 2010 squad. Simple, time-proven elements should have been avoided and would have been if Fabio Capello was not so inflexible. He stuck to his tried and tested rules by announcing team option as the players boarded the bus to the game, two hours before kick off! How that must have motivated / demotivated those pampered, overpaid prima donnas!
Why was Emile Heskey even there? Why was he even thought about for the squad in the first place? He is just a big, bruising English centre transmit in the Nat Lofthouse mould (without Nat's goalscoring record!) with the stature and guile of a fully laden supertanker. Capello's masterstroke while the Germany game was to bring on Heskey when England were already losing 1 - 4! How is a striker with only seven international goals in over sixty appearances going to suddenly convert the procedure of England's World Cup? His non existent goal scoring article for England meant wee to Capello who saw him as the exquisite partner to Wayne Rooney. Unfortunately Rooney lost the form that so lit up his season with Manchester United. Emile and Wayne naturally didn't click. But then again neither did whatever else.
Peter Crouch was brought along to unsettle defences with his ungainly playing style and height. Unfortunately his cameo doing against Algeria confirmed his lack of international class - he should not have been on the field, playing international football for England. He unbalances the team. The most unlikely, six-foot nine plus English footballer with wee ball operate has only ever scored in the past because Beckham could pick out his head. Without Becks and superior opposition to what he meets day in day out in the Premiership, Crouch remained a poor attacking option for England in South Africa.
Why did he not do the obvious? Take Michael Owen instead of Heskey! literally Owen has a sketchy injury article but he has scored breathtaking goals throughout his career and could have been brought along as an impact substitute! His appearance near the end of a game may have created something spectacular. Then, instead of Crouch, Agbonlahor should have been there, maybe even as first option striker with a proven goal scoring article in the Premiership.
Another factor is we all know that Lampard and Gerard cannot play on the same squad as they are the same player! They should have been substitutes for each other. Playing Gerard down the left-wing was not his best position. We all know that his role should have been in the hole just behind Rooney! It is a position England have never been able to properly fill, not at least adequately since "rapper turned footballer", John Barnes. Then finally in 2006, Joe Cole (the most under utilised English player at this World Cup) came along, an attacking midfielder with buckets of skill and speed for the wing fitted the slot perfectly. Yet, Gerard was placed out left and Joe Cole was bought on seventy minutes into a game that was already lost. He went into Rooney's position and was anticipated to pull off a miracle.
So as I ponder all the options with my feet propped up on my favourite footstool I look transmit to the 2018 World Cup. By then members of the thriving England Under 17 side who have just been crowned European champions will be established regulars in the senior England team. Just like the Germans who have promoted many of their best young players while this World Cup, England will become a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately we will have to wait an additional one eight years for the emergence of the next "Golden Generation".
English Failure at the 2010 World Cup