Was yesterday the day when England lost the World Cup?
Onto the game. James Milner, Ashley Cole, David James, Jermain Defoe and even the odious John Terry all receive an honourable mention in dispatches. Nevertheless, England’s weaknesses were all too often exposed by a weak Slovenian side.
There were at times passages of sloppy play by England, which was encapsulated when both John Terry and Matthew Upson passed the ball carelessly to Slovenian players that required some last ditch defending to avert the danger.
Secondly, England looked like they were playing with ten men yesterday as Rooney woefully under-performed again for the fifth game in succession. True he hit the post and supplied Steven Gerrard with a sweet reverse pass, but for an action-man type player, his overall performance seemed subdued. If England are to progress in this tournament he will have to step up to the plate now.
Rooney before the tournament was categorised as one of the top three players in the world. Messi and Ronaldo have now begun to exert their influence on the world stage. Rooney will never be able to claim that he is a true great unless he begins to showcase his talent in the world’s premier competition.
The match confirmed Gerrard’s tendency to drift in from the left and leave Ashley Cole exposed. This may not have been punished in the group games but will most certainly be exploited by the more wily teams such as Germany.
What to do? Well, Capello could play Joe Cole on the left and he has played there before for England under Eriksson, so he does have experience at the highest level playing in that position.
And so we arrive at the conundrum which has bemused managers, fans and pundits will it be Gerrard or Lampard?
His England form has been a lot less impressive with 20 goals scored in 81 appearances. Gerrard has a similar record, with 17 goals in 83 appearances but these statistics are deceiving. Lampard is England’s penalty taker and plays in his preferred position whilst Gerrard has been banished to the left hand side of midfield.
The two obviously can’t play together in the centre, it doesn’t matter how good they are, they just can’t. If Lampard doesn’t score goals there is no point to him. He can’t take the game by the scruff of the neck and will his team mates on with his dynamism and bravery.
Gerrard can and must be allowed to do this. Lampard has always tried his best for England but we are now at the deep end of the tournament and have reached our Hurst for Greaves moment. If we are to progress, Capello must unshackle his captain.
Having Joe Cole on the left would give greater balance to the team. With Milner’s crossing ability and Cole’s capacity to take on full-backs, a dual threat would emanate from both wings with Gerrard bombing down the centre from midfield. A scenario which would give any hardened manager sleepless nights, with the added bonus of having our full-backs protected better. Seems like a no brainer.
One thing that is for sure is that England are most probably going to be in the more difficult half of the draw as a result of finishing second in an easy group. We will have to meet our Kryptonite (Germany), Argentina, Spain and Brazil on the way to winning the World Cup.
Instead of meeting the likes of Ghana and waiting until the semis to play a grade A team (Brazil) we will now have to face and beat the very best. For those who are still hungover, the headache just got a lot worse.
Germany can be beaten. They do have a fearsome three pronged attack with Podolski, Klose and Ozil creating havoc upfront ably supported by Muller but they do have a soft underbelly which can be exposed. So although it may not be auf wiedersehen quite yet it will most likely be adios or te logo.
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