Buzzin Football

So what did the England game against Algeria prove?

I’m not going to knock the players, because that would be the easy way out of it. What seems obvious to the viewing public is that there seems to be issues deeper than on the pitch, but politically and the way Fabio Capello is running our side.

The England players seemed completely and utterly despondent throughout the match. Some people may put this down to them not wanting to be there, but I put it down to the single minded, conservative style fashioned Fabio Capello who is putting fear into the players minds and is stopping them from expressing themselves on the pitch. What’s naming his side 2 hours before the game all about?  David James didn’t know he was even in the side for this evening until he got on the coach.

I mean look at Diego Maradona the Argentina manager, totally vilified throughout the world’s press but because of the laid back attitude style of his management, his players are able to perform to their capabilities and there is a fantastic team spirit as shown by the whole team and bench jumping, smiling and dancing together. Would you see Fabio Capello do this? No. Do we ever see our players enjoying themselves? No. Is there disharmony within the camp? Yes there is, and it isn’t helping our campaign to win the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

The tactically naive and negative Stuart Pierce is our under 21 coach and Fabio’s assistant. So having Pierce and Capello working together, what we can’t expect is our quality players to play free flowing football with the negativity coming from above. Overall this false dawn under Capello has been a total myth. When he was first appointed England Manager he needed to bring the players down to earth. But ever since then, we’ve played awful football with some of the best players in the world like Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney whose main forte is to play expansive football.

Every side needs organisation and the need to be humble, but Capello needs to work out a middle ground between organisation, fear and the ability to let his players express themselves. There is though something about his character that suggests and confirms that he is stubborn and won’t change his all out disciplinarian, mobile phones banned from dinner, bed by 11 and tailored suit wearing ways.

Am I saying he should go if we don’t win on Wednesday? Yes. With the FA appointing him as our manager was them confirming to us as a footballing nation that they were happy to maintain the image of English football being all about `gritty determination, hard working, technically limited but committed, strength over skill and kick and rush football.` This isn’t going to win us anything. Its all about the grassroots as well, the kids need to learn how to play attacking, free-flowing and flexible football.

The fact that Capello has left Joe Cole, the most creative player in the England squad on the bench for the first two games against USA and Algeria, shows his ignorance and shows he has a blind spot when it comes to attacking football that any team from any level needs to win games.

Furthermore, for Wayne Rooney to have the audacity to complain to the camera saying “nice for our home fans to boo us” is a total disgrace. Well Wayne, how dare you say that and degrade the passionate support of our England fans in South Africa currently. The fans over there have spent thousands of pounds flying to South Africa to support England and deserve better.

The players may not understand that our fantastic England fans could still be heard singing our national anthem over the noise of the great Vuvuzela, showing their sheer passion for the cause. Does he acknowledge this? No, because he is an out of touch, arrogant and an over commercialised spoilt child.

So, can on the basis of tonight, England win the World Cup? No we can’t.

Does that mean anything? No it doesn’t because we have another opportunity to win against Slovenia on Wednesday and finish top of the group.

We have got a lifeline, so the players need to grasp it with their manicured hands, otherwise its game and tournament over. Remember, Italy weren’t brilliant in 2006, but they dug in; and France were dreadful throughout the whole competition but still made the final. They achieved scrappy one nil’s here and there and most significantly, stuck together as a unified team unit.

England’s display against Algeria was worse than the French display against Mexico, but if the squad collectively confronted Capello last night with frank, open and honest opinions hopefully issues were resolved. Otherwise we should expect the same again, the same complaints and the same players underperforming.

So c’mon England. We know we put too much pressure on you, but that is because we believe in you as players and that belief is the reason why we’ll beat Slovenia on Wednesday and achieve top spot in the group irrespective of previous performances.