They Just Can't Cope.

They just can't cope. The game against Algeria was appalling and probably the worst game I have seen for a very long time. Something had happened before the game. They were like a family that had had a massive barney and were not talking. Every player looked like they didn't want to be there, and who could blame them?

Maybe we will never know the whole story. Each person will have interpreted the situation in a different way. However, something is rotten in the camp and I expect it is to do with Capello's management style and the England players' inability to be flexible and go along with the regime.

Capello appears to be a micro manager, which ultimately encorages people to behave like children. If you are told, what to eat, when to go to bed, how to walk, talk, play and think, sooner or later you start to resent it. Eventually, someone will explode and confront the manager. Suddenly other players start to see the flaws in the plan and start rebelling as well. The team is then doomed. Factions develop and any team spirit is gone. Then the game is up, everyone realises the manager has lost respect and control. At this point the micro manager's default position is to control even more as he feels his control slipping, which obviously makes things much worse and fuels the rebellion- the result- last night.

Of course the players are also to blame. They don't have the capacity to be flexible and see the bigger picture. Some of them are so spoilt and used to being managed in a particular way they see any other method as an affront. They are asked to play out of position, they are away from their support mechanisms and they are surrounded by people they don't know. They also miss the status they enjoy at club level. Then put them under the media spotlight at a high pressure tournament and the result is disaster. Yes they are professionals but put any group of professionals in such a situation with a micro manager and when things go a little wrong, the result will be the same.

Of course, if you don't micro manage a group of such fevered egos you may as well try to herd cats and hope it all falls into place on the night. The only real solution is to find a manager that has the respect, management and leadership style and tactical know how to get the best out of such a mixed group of players. And of course to be World beaters the team need to be greater than the sum of their parts. Ultimately, you need players that can be flexible and cope with the English set up. You also need enough mature experienced players to support the young flare players. So almost impossible really. Put this in the mix with: the English attitude to sport; grassroots training and education; the media; the wages; the wags; too many foreign players in the Premiership; too many matches; the climate; style of English play; the size of the population; I could go on - let's face it, we are fucked.

The only way we will ever win the world cup again is if we get most of this sorted and then have a mountain of luck. We will nearly always get out of the group stages and to the quarter finals and occasionally we won't.

Why can other countries do it over and over again? Easy, they are better and different. They also have their problems but just deal with them more successfully. Let's face it most of the the people involved in football are not particularly bright - just listen to the pundits! Most sports reporters and journalists, who endlessly spew out their often limited opinions, usually focusing on one or two aspects of the problem, have never done sport to a high level and are better at writing than running about. Most of them, I would imagine, were not the first people picked at school in PE lessons, so how can they really understand what it is like to perform at any level?

What can we do? - Nothing. Suffer until by accident it will all come good - in a sort of monkeys and typewriters kind of way.

Fuck it I am off to the park for a coffee. I have depressed myself... Hey there is always Wednesday when England will be great again - won't they? This is not how I imagined it.