England World Cup I Blame Svennis

In spite of history I think we can blame
the manager
even if his mistakes are familiar

I think the anger and disappointment does not come from losing - hell 'we' do that all the time. I've watched our cricket all too predictably become a bunch of Charlie Big Potatoes Losers - desperate to be underdogs this winter in Australia. I've watch our rugby team descend and be coached by an apparent fool.

In football it is just the hope that England will play well once - go 3 and out and just play is better than this. I think the worst thing looking at the players afterwards is they actually cared and probably all did their best in their own way - Owen, Rooney, Carragher, Lampard, Beckham UTC. All seem genuinely whole hearted. Even Beckham probably took the captaincy and its responsibilities far more seriously and certainly more earnestly as an obligation, not a right, than any predecessor. English players are such sheep that for me it is the coaching. All invective has to be at the manager and coaches.

Sven was paid 5 million a year to break with the past, was leaving anyway and yet made no bold decisions with his star players. In the end I just don't think he has the intelligence to. He genuinely believed he could only win with Rooney. Such star player worship underpinned by plenty of contrary evidence the kid is yet able to win on his own is damaging. Plus even more evidence that only one player in history has been 40% of a side to carry a team that far. Indeed by taking Walcott he said he would not threaten the cosy position of Rooney and Owen despite their failure to impact qualifying consistently - esp Rooney.

If getting sent off and learning that people who you chat with amicably in the tunnel beforehand can use all the tricks in the book on you removes some naivety from young Wayne then good. Agreed it was no loss we were not winning anyway. Even had he stayed on unlike Ecuador he was never going to get left open field 1 on 1 where he could hurt them. (Arguably for me even accepting the debacle v Northern Ireland he should be used wide in a 433 or off the bench unfit - although Lennon waited, what?, 20 minutes for the ball after coming on. You have to learn to sit and suffer even if you are good and deployed correctly).

McClaren would not have taken Walcott. What more concerns me is that even without Walcott we take the lightweight Defoe or Johnson. Since we could not get the ball to Rooney, Owen or Crouch how would chronically lightweight Spurs reserve Defoe have helped? Johnson might actually have been a better bet 451 - joke was when he started a friendly for England they played Owen as the one and him as a winger.

Also I think the decision to bring Neville back which essentially changed the formation Hargreaves for Carrick was not a neutral selection it was the difference between 4141 and 451 see Hargreaves Messiah or Problem?.