England's World Cup: Some Final Thoughts

I felt very sorry for Beckham when I read he’d resigned as England captain. He’s done the job with dignity and pride and has played consistently well for a talented England squad with so many underperformers. Beckham has led by tireless example. I’m not just talking about that game against Greece in 2001, which is the best individual performance I’ve ever seen by any player. In this World Cup he made or scored 3 of our 5 goals. He was up and down the pitch, getting stuck in and trying his heart out. The calls for him to be dropped were confusing, to say the least. Lampard or Gerrard should have made way before Beckham if form was the guide. The only game he didn’t really play well in was the game against Portugal where he didn’t see much of the ball.

Gerrard and Lampard were by far the biggest disappointments. Gerrard scored two goals but did nothing much else and that’s typical Gerrard, to be honest. He’s often out of the game completely, but then will pop up from out of nowhere and score a wonder goal. That’s fine if you’re a striker, but a central midfielder needs to be involved in the game all the time. Perhaps making him captain will make him play as well as he does for Liverpool. Too often, though, even for Liverpool, his passing is wayward, particularly his long passes. Even when he was set free by the introduction of Hargreaves as the holding player, he was anonymous against Portugal. Choosing him as a penalty-taker was a mistake. There’s a reason why he doesn’t take Liverpool’s penalties any more: he misses too often. If the captaincy is now between Gerrard and Terry, for me, John Terry is the only choice because, unlike Gerrard, he plays consistently well for England. Terry deserves it.

Lampard was lacklustre, but at least he was getting into the right positions to dribble those shots into the arms of the keeper. He has been the most consistent midfielder in the country for a few years now. What a shame he lost his form at the wrong time. Once again, I was bemused by the decision to have him as our first penalty-taker. I know he’s our official penalty-taker, but was I the only one who was convinced he would miss because of his low confidence?

Having said that about Gerrard and Lampard taking penalties, who else was there? Some of those really cool customers in the back four, maybe? Even Robinson, perhaps? I’d have felt more confident with them striding up to take one, to be honest. Certainly not Crouch, though…

The Germans are astonishing at this penalty taking lark. Even when they were up against Argentina, who aren’t so bad at penalties themselves, there was only ever going to be one winner. You could see on their faces something more than determination as they strode up to take their penalties. It was belief. Not for one second did they look as if they were thinking about the possibility of missing. They were all superb spot kicks: not only did they blast them, but they blasted them into the corner. Just like Alan Shearer used to do.

It was no surprise, then, that Hargreaves, our token German, was the only player to score his penalty. I am currently eating a massive slice of humble pie about Hargreaves. He was everywhere against Portugal; indeed, his performance reminded me a little bit of Beckham’s against Greece in 2001. He was easily the best player in the squad at this World Cup. This alone causes me to question whether Sven had a clue what he was doing. Hargreaves was regularly in the squad during the qualifiers, but never made it into the team. Sometimes he wasn't even named as a substitute. He came on from time to time with ten minutes or less left. Why, all of a sudden, did Sven decide that Hargreaves was such a key player? He did this in the last World Cup, too. All of a sudden, Hargreaves was the answer on the left side of midfield. If we were going to play with Hargreaves as the holding player all along, surely it would have been an idea to practise that before the tournament? Of course, Sven didn't know all along that Hargreaves would play. It just kind of happened.

Sven’s idiocy in only choosing four strikers has been well-documented. I had a feeling that Rooney would get himself suspended at some point during the tournament, making him a double risk that had to be backed up with more strikers. I wouldn’t have relished a World Cup semi-final with Crouch ploughing a lonely furrow up front. Of course, we had Walcott too, but Sven obviously didn’t like what he saw of him in training or something. I doubt he would have made his debut at the World Cup in the semi-final. His decision to take only three strikers he was willing to play contributed massively to England’s downfall. Wouldn’t it have been great to have brought Defoe or Andy Johnson or Bent on against Portugal instead of Crouch? Someone who could have held the ball up instead of falling over his own limbs? Someone with pace and strength? Crouch was pretty good by his standards when he came on, and he was trying his heart out, but he needs someone up there with him to give the ball to before it gets tangled up in his legs.

On the subject of Rooney, I’m still bemused by the red card. The stamp didn’t look intentional to me. The push of Ronaldo was no different to Ronaldo barging him out of the way to bleat to the ref. Crazy decision.

I’d be quite interested to read how Rooney’s sending off is being viewed by the British press. Is he being vilified as Beckham was? Having looked at The Sun’s website, which always sets the tone for this kind of thing, it seems that Ronaldo is the one who had better pack his bags and leave the country. No effigies of Rooney then? Are Portuguese restaurants being smashed up? Or have the English managed to cope with defeat with dignity?

I know everyone hates Ronaldo at the moment, and after Rooney’s sending off I was calling him a few choice names every time I saw him running like a horse down the touchline. Someone I was watching the game with shouted “break his legs” and I can’t remember arguing against that tactic with any vociferousness. After a day or so to reflect, though, I have to admit that Ronaldo was pretty shrewd. He knows all about Rooney’s temperament problems and he exposed that weakness. I wondered why Rooney had reacted so badly to Ronaldo getting involved after the incident with Carvalho, but got my answer today from The Sun’s website (so it must be true). Apparently, before the game, Ronaldo had told Rooney that he was going to get him sent off. That planted the seed which made Rooney shove him. Rooney was incensed to see Ronaldo actually doing what he said he was going to do, so he shoved him. The ref said he was going to send him off for the “stamp”, but I’ve seen the replay a few times and he’d not made a move for a card. Instead, he was pointing in the direction of England’s goal as if it would just have been a free kick. Ronaldo should change his name to Iago, perhaps, because his whisperings worked. It’s not exactly gentlemanly play, but nor is falling over to win your side a penalty, which is a real strength of Michael Owen’s game. Either it’s all cheating and we shouldn’t whinge about someone else cheating just because it’s different to the way we cheat, or it’s all part of the game and we should put up with it.

Of course, I still hope Rooney sticks one on him in training if Ronaldo is foolish enough to set foot on English soil again.

Against Portugal, I was hoping that we wouldn’t score the first goal, because that would have revealed the other tactical flaw in Sven’s “plan”, which is sitting back and defending a one goal lead. I would have fancied our chances more if we'd had to come out and attack. Of course, we didn't score the first goal, but sadly, neither did Portugal. Anyway, my point is that shutting up shop is a very risky tactic, but it's one that Sven employed extremely frequently. In fact, in the last World Cup, Sven got a bit confused and shut up shop against Brazil when we were losing 2-1 by bringing Phil Neville on to shore up the defence a bit. Just in case we lost 3-1, or something. The only time I can remember this tactic working against a good quality team was against Argentina in the last World Cup. If the odds are this bad, it's time to change the tactic.

Hopefully, with McClaren in charge, we’ll go 2 or 3 down and come back to win as that seemed to be his approach with Middlesbrough in Europe this year. I’ve got a nasty feeling that it’ll be more of the same, though.

Finally, this time around, I managed to avoid the bitter disappointment and misery I usually feel when England are knocked out of major tournaments. I’d filled in a World Cup predictor at work where I had to predict the result of every game. I considered a few permutations, but always had England losing in the quarter final. There was no way under Sven that we would play the right attacking, fast-paced, English football that would harass and rattle a good team. Having this defeatist attitude certainly numbs the pain a bit. Look at the way the Germans came out all guns blazing against Argentina. A few crisp tackles early doors and, even though Argentina took the lead, they never really got into their stride because the aggression of the Germans knocked them off it. That’s how we should have started every game. Sven didn't learn anything from his tenure as coach of England. And England didn't make any progress.