It all stems from a lack of qualified coaches. The ratio of coaches to players in this country compared to others speaks volumes; we're basically relying on enthusiastic parents to do it. What was most concerning last night was the way the basic functions of the team completely broke down. The fullbacks stopped overlapping, there was absolutely no movement amongst the front six and everyone seemed to lose the most basic ability to control the ball.
For me, Rooney's decision to drop back to midfield and the way he has been indulged by the media and the manager sums up everything wrong with our footballing culture. Exactly the same thing happened with Gerrard and Lampard, and we even had a bizarre period of trying that quarterback nonsense with Beckham because nobody could bring themselves to admit that he wasn't up to it anymore. It shows how little regard we have for the team compared to individuals - taken on their own Rooney's performances in the first two games might have been ok, but it forced everyone around him into roles they're not comfortable with. We went into the second half last night with a midfield three comprised of two number ten's and a striker, and out wide - in a game where we were crying out for width - we had a one footed striker playing on the right who only wants to cut in and on the left we had Sterling, who is completely bereft of confidence and, again, whose first instinct is to come inside.
I said after the group games that I thought we were deluding ourselves over the quality of our performances, particularly against Russia. I watched so many people talking that up as our 'best performance in years.' The sad thing is our actualy best performance in years came not too long ago against Germany when we beat them 3-2. Everyone played in roles they understood, we didn't panic when we went behind and showed a lot of heart and quality to come back from two goals down. Then at the first opportunity Rooney comes back, gets shoehorned into the squad and we've not looked even remotely capable of reaching that level since.
I don't know who the next manager should be. I like Howe but I worry he's not got the stature to really stand up to the media/FA and do what needs to be done in terms of refusing to pander to the 'names' and instead settling on a system and picking the players that best suit that. Even Capello eventually backed down and reverted to the usual nonsense when he got to a tournament. Inevitably though it's going to be Southgate, another 'safe' choice who won't rock to the boat, won't cause any controversy, who'll breeze through an easy qualifying group and never endanger the place of the commercial breadwinners.
It could be worse, though. A few years ago the FA were grooming Stuart Pearce for the role.
