England's failings

Thought I would have my say on this as I have been reading a lot about it lately, as you'd expect. Here is what I think went wrong with England's World Cup campaign.

1. Fabio Capello. His inflexibility when it came to the way he handled the players obviously led to some disharmony in the camp. This stretched to the system England played on the pitch as the rigid 4-4-2 wasn't changed throughout even to get the best out of players who are used to other systems. Equally, his subs were, at times, just wrong. His faith in Heskey is as misplaced as it is wavering. That said I'm not surprised he remains in post.

2. The players. Despite not being happy with the system the big players didn't perform well at all. Given that most played together during qualifying, the fact they looked like they didn't even know each other was unforgiveable. The excuse of being tired is rubbish, other nations seem fine and their players have played the same amount of games. Same goes for the ball.

3. The squad. I guess this combines both of the above but the squad was wrong from the start. Adam Johnson should have been there. Dawson and Crouch both should have been used more. Carragher shouldn't have been there. Hart should have started in goal etc

4. The Germans. They just thrashed Argentina 4-0. They only beat us 4-1. Basically they made us look bad because they are playing so well.

5. The Ref/Linesman. Despite point number 4, we might have held up a lot better had we gone in 2-2 at half time. They certainly wouldn't have been able to catch us on the break so badly because we wouldn't have been chasing the game so much.

6. The press. I get that the media have a right to have a go at the team a bit if they do not perform. But the over the top attacks on the team, certainly after the USA game where we played ok, are unnecessary and don't help at all. Anyone is bound to be affected by that much criticism and if our players looked nervous on the pitch it is probably because in the back of their mind they were thinking about the kicking they'd get in the media for not performing.

There is a bunch of other minor stuff but these are the major things that led to us crashing out.
I hope that, regardless of whether Capello stays or not, we start to use younger players and develop more of a team attitude rather than a bunch of stars mentality.
And try something other than 4-4-2 is that doesn't suit!