Post Mortem (Again)
While I do not believe, despite the media pundits, that the German team is any better than England (they were the beneficiaries of karma and with luck we’ve heard the end of their incessant whining about Geoff Hurst’s 2nd goal in 1966) it is clear that Capello does not have the magic needed to transmute lead into gold. We were foolish to think he did. He is a top class manager. If England cannot win with Capello they cannot win, period. And they cannot win. The Moore-Charlton equivalency holds. I’d let myself think that Rooney is an elite player: he has proven that he isn’t, he was flat-out awful. I still like the lad and that think he’ll bounce back for the Reds but Charlton equivalent he ain’t. Similarly, Lampard + Gerrard does not equal Bobby Moore. Gerrard has definitely gone back; I hope it’s not permanent but I fear that it is. On top of this, England fielded a poor defence. Terry has also gone back: he played very badly vs Germany. Upson simply doesn’t belong at this level although he showed great heart by scoring. Johnson is marginal. Cole is the only truly international class defender among them now. The others (Defoe, Barry, Milner, Cole, Heskey) are adequate if there were the M-C equivalency. SWP isn’t good enough nor Crouch, despite his goalscoring stats. James was ok as it turned out. Finally, all of the rabbiting on about formation is irrelevant claptrap.