David Hurst

I’ve blogged before that Steve McLaren should be sacked and tonight was the ultimate proof. There are people all over the forums claiming that there are too many foreigners in the English game and this has caused the current crisis. There are too many foreign players, and it will have an impact, but there are still sufficient numbers of talented players to choose from.

The players did not play well tonight, with the exception of Peter Crouch - arguably England’s best centre forward at the moment (even if Rafa Benitez doesn’t think so). I thought David Beckham put in a good showing too. But why did they not play well?

First of all, look at the state of the pitch. Simply nowhere near the standard of old Wembley. The FA and stadium management have failed to adequately prepare the national stadium for the team - they’re more interested in raking in cash from concerts and pointless NFL games.

The main problem tonight though was the team selection. 4-5-1 does not work for the England national team. It especially doesn’t work when you try to play Lampard, Gerrard and Barry in the midfield. Too cluttered.

Scott Carson in goal? I nearly choked on my dinner. Scott is a promising keeper, but he is nowhere near ready to be in goal for a game of this magnitude. It should have been Paul Robinson or David James.

Why not play Beckham from the start? Wright-Phillips may give us pace, but Beckham can deliver a killer ball from almost anywhere on the pitch - he doesn’t need pace to skip past the last defender in order to get a cross in. Once again he proved it by snapping in a great ball for Peter Crouch, who finished with the finesse you expect from the big man.

I would have played Gerrard with Barry, or Lampard with Hargreaves in the midfield.

4-4-2 is what English players know and love. Why change it for such an important game? And why on earth would you put an inexperienced keeper between the posts, particularly given the appalling weather.

I don’t believe that England lack sufficiently talented players to compete. Many of the England team would walk into any national team on the planet. The problem is with the dire management. The England team doesn’t need some superstar manager to ring the changes. It needs a sensible passionate leader who will pick the best players and play them in the best formation.

I’m quite glad England didn’t qualify - at least I won’t have to spend the summer agonising over bad refereeing and penalty shoot-outs. And, at least we won’t have to put up with people hanging George cross flags off of everything they own.