Saturday was a poor evening for English football. After we made such light work of qualification it was disappointing to slump to such an awkward defeat to a much overrated Ukrainian side.
Instead of using the match to intimidate our future opposition we exposed our team’s frailties to the world. Rio Ferdinand displayed none of the skill and composure that makes him a regular in the English’s champion’s first eleven while Glen Johnson showed that he is hardly a defensive rock. In front of goal we once again lacked the cutting edge that turns teams into world champions. Is this a sign of things to come in the approaching World Cup?
No, or at least I rather hope not. Though this first defeat may be a bitter pill for Capello to swallow its best that he takes it now before it’s too late; England may have bared their vulnerabilities to the rest of the world but we can now stop kidding ourselves that the team is the finished product.
The problems are obvious even to this most naïve of football writers: we need wingers who can track back and cover our roaming full-backs; we need a proven goal-scorer to partner Rooney and we need to drop Rio Ferdinand. The last statement may seem drastic but it’s the only way to stop the rot of complacency. If we carry on allowing Ferdinand to turn out poor performances in an England shirt then we’ll end up in the bad ol’days of Steve McLaren. It would be the death of our hopes of 2010 glory if England is allowed to return to those days of laxity; when playing for your country had become a chore not a privilege.
Capello has already done much to engender a sense of competition for places and it would be a shame if that was to end over the continual use of sub-standard players. When we have talent like Jagielka, Lescott and Upson all ready and waiting to fill the gap in central defence there’s nothing stopping Capello from putting a rocket up Rio. There is still time to fix the problems before we head to South Africa and our upcoming match against Belarus will hopefully be used to showcase our intentions for the 2010 World Cup.