TAG : England

Many things stick in my throat.
Most of all the inept display and the lack of ideas all round.
Yes, we played for 20 mins in the first half. But that's'not enough.
Something eight million a year Fabio has to work on..

Anyway on a personal note, just joined a gym here. I have to negotiate a group of down and outs who live in the doorway. They seem very good natured given they live in a street.
Think my rugby injury will get better before their situation does.

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Well, what a shambles. From the match in Cape Town to the press conference shenanigans yesterday with John Terry, England are in a mess.

Everyone is to blame; manager, coaches and players. Could it be that Fabio Capello is the right man at the wrong time? Some of his substitutions against Algeria were baffling. Before the World Cup, all the talk was of pace. Everyone seemed to believe that this was what was required to break down the world's best defences (and Algeria's). However, pace is only useful when there is space to run into, and Algeria weren't daft enough to allow that so they defended on the edge of their penalty area. The game was screaming out for Joe Cole, one of the few English players with a bit of cunning, but Capello left him on the bench. He seems inflexible, like a man still defiantly watching his old black-and-white telly, while the rest of us relax in front of our colour HDs.

So I am in South Africa! The blog has had to wait as they sent me out to work straight off the flight. I only managed to sleep for two hours on the way over but thought it would not matter as I had the day to sleep some more. Not a chance. When we reached our accommodation, I was told to hurry up as I was going straight out to record some audio and then I would be producing a show in the afternoon. We ended up in a safari park, recording the presenters’ reactions to the wildlife and getting some vox pops. I then produced Drive with Adrian Durham, where he tried to be positive about England’s chances. The listeners on the whole were quite downbeat though. It is amazing the way people are playing down our prospects. I have even heard people criticising Fabio Capello for not knowing his best team or formation. Don’t they appreciate he has to try different things in the build-up? Is he supposed to do it in our opening game instead? As Michael Winner might suggest, calm down dear!!!