What Lions?

Lacklustre, not even good enough to be frustrating, England are doing their thing: disappointing us all. It is little surprise that the team were boo'd off the pitch and they oughtn't complain. The defence was rickety, the midfield lacked spark and I'm not sure If the attack really existed beyond a donkey and a ghost.

I've always defended Heskey's place in the England team, on the basis that other strikers play well with him and he often comes up with a good bit of hold up and link up play, but when he's clearly not making Rooney play well, its difficult to justify his selection. If Heskey plays you want to have two strikers in and around the box, close to each other and well serviced, this is how hes involved himself in some fantastic strike partnerships such as with Michael Owen and Amr Zaki. Tonight though, Capello seemed to think that in Heskey he had a quick young thoroughbred with a good touch - and that he really didn't. Heskey was chasing long balls all night, or trying to run at the defender. A moment that summed up the night was when he ran down the right channel, nearly fell over doing an ineffective stepover, then sliced a cross over the crossbar. This isn't Heskey's fault, we all know Heskey can't run, do stepovers or cross, but he was put in a position where he had to. When he wasn't auditioning for a Nike ad he was found loitering on the wing. This presents us with three questions: how will he get to the long ball played down the wing? What's he going to do when he gets there and has to beat a defender or cross or? And who's going to head it in when he's crossing it and Rooney's venturing so deep he's almost a sweeper. Of course questions two and three are only academic as Heskey will never successfully engineer a good crossing opportunity. I don't blame Heskey for England's performance; I feel sorry for him as he is a prime example of Capello's poor decisions and reluctance to change things that don't work.

Playing Gerrard on the Left may not have seen such stupidity at half past seven but after being ineffective for an hour, it would surely be better to try Joe Cole on the wing and free Gerrard to influence the game, as England's best moments came when Gerrard broke position. Instead, when Capello brought off Heskey he replaced him with another uninspiring striker and when he brought off Lennon he again made a like for like replacement, bring on Shaun Wright-Phillips. Yes both of these substitutes looked livlier than the starters but tactically nothing was changed and in the score nothing changed.

Englands defence may not fill us with confidence but that is a problem for later in the tournament....IF there is a later. Against Slovenia Fabio will have to arrange an effective attack out of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole and Lennon. Difficult? Surely not!

If he can't motivate the team, just show them the Carlsberg advert!