Problems at Home?

Another England game, another disappointing result and once again every man and his dog are trying to work out what’s wrong with England.

Is it players playing out of position? Is it Capello’s management style? Or is it players “bottling it” in the games.

There is no doubt that something isn’t working, the team look like they’re out of ideas when they get into the opposition half and the big name players aren’t performing like we see them do every Saturday on Match of the Day.

But I think it’s wrong to place blame on one aspect of the team, whatever that may be. It’s a number of things that make a team perform below par and to start pointing fingers isn’t helping anything.

Now I’m going to mention now that I have no problems with fans having lively debates and voicing their opinions, but I think people get too caught up on one aspect to see the whole picture.

The most recent gripe we’re hearing is that players like Lampard, Rooney, Gerrard and, more recently, Milner, Barry and Carrick “bottle it” as soon as they have the three lions on their chests.

It’s true that these players underperformed drastically in the World Cup but to say that the pressure got to them, to me, seems like a cop out.

They are professional footballers who face immense pressure at club level playing in Champions league finals, taking make-or-break penalties and with fans constantly wanting them to bring glory to their clubs.

And I’m as guilty as the next England fan when it comes to getting caught up in world cup fever. Claims of ‘this is our year’ and ‘football’s coming home’ can be heard every two years (provided we qualify to the EURO’s this time) in every ground, pub or 5-a-side pitch around the country.

But do we actually expect the team to win? Do we actually think that there is no better team in the world than us and that it would be a shock if we DIDN’T have the trophy on the flight home with our English heroes? I don’t think so.

Going into the world cup we were high on the FIFA rankings but not top, we were not top in the betting shop and we were looking at teams like Spain, Brazil and Argentina thinking they were forces to be reckoned with.

Granted there is pressure on any England team but I don’t think the expectation in 2010 was for us to win, I think it was there for the taking if we put in a string of performances, but we didn’t. Nobody missed a penalty in extra time, nobody got sent off, nobody “bottled it” ...we just didn’t perform.

Then came the game against Montenegro last October at Wembley, when Capello had the chance to put the world cup daemons away. Another poor flat performance, another crowd (including myself) booing the players off the field, and another squad of England players looking dejected and making excuses.

However I do feel that Capello is making the right moves. He knows it isn’t working and he’s starting to experiment with new players.

Questions will be asked about giving first caps to a 33 year old Kevin Davis and 28 year old Jay Bothroyd who isn’t even playing in the premiership, but it shows Capello has got the balls to try something new.

And now he’s blooding young(er) English talent like Hart, Carroll, Milner, Adam Johnson and Ashley Young who are all putting in impressive performances at club level and fully deserve international call ups.

For me this is exactly what he needs to be doing, the golden generation is now sailing off into the history books and we need to concentrate on getting future prospects into the international system, scoring goals and winning games.

So we shouldn’t be too angry with losses in friendly games with France, a team which we now have a lot in common. Both teams have to rebuild from a disastrous world cup and have a team full of new faces.

The country is in a transition period and the Football team is no different. There’s going to be kinks that need ironing out as new players adjust to international football and Capello tweaks with formations and starting line ups, but we have to have faith that it will come good when it matters.

Capello is a highly respected and decorated manager and he doesn’t strike me as a fool. In two years we will (hopefully) be getting into frenzy about our chances in the EURO’s but will we expect to win it? No? Will we hope to win it? Yes. And if we don’t win it will the same questions about players, management and fans be circling around the country again? That much you can bet on.