The Value of Low Expectations

The one surprise was that we didn't take it to penalties to have our arses handed to us. And handed to us our arses indeed were. England's biggest ever World Cup Finals defeat. Humiliation, thy name is Joachim Low.

Even the elaborate 'Low Expectations' defence failed to work. To get round this, England launched a quasi-comeback that began with Upson's goal and ended with the third German goal, encompassing Lampard's 'goal' and the same player hitting the post. What this did was rouse my expectations into thinking "we can bloody well do this" but then dashed them in a cruel manner. A delightful new tactic developed by the England football team.

Ah yes, THAT 'goal', the motif that will dominate all of the papers tomorrow, not just the red-tops but the broadsheets too. The simple fact is, it shouldn't. As Lee Dixon (perhaps pundit of the tournament so far) rightly said on Match of the Day, it will just cover the up the cracks. We are not good enough and haven't been for at least 40 years now. We are a second rate footballing nation that has no right to go into any major tournament expecting to win it. We are on the same level as France and Spain, occasionally good enough but we only have a small number of trophies to show for it. The media should accept this but no, of course, hype sells.

It would appear, in this blogger's opinion, that the fault lies with the players. After the 2006 World Cup, Erikkson's laidback attitude to the team was criticised. Now, Capello is too authoritarian. The one constant feature? The players. Something just changes in them when they touch down in a host country and they cannot play together. Indeed, today it looked as if they had never even met each other. Where had the confidence from the qualifiers gone?

At this point, in my opinion, the clear solution is this. Ask Capello if he has any intention to stay longer than 2012. If not, get rid of him and get someone in who is. Then, a cull of this team is required, voluntarily or not. Get rid of James, Joe Cole, Heskey, Lampard, Ferdinand to start with. Bring in youth. Build a team with Adam Johnson and James Milner on the wings, Rooney up front, Hart in goal and say this is a long term project. If we don't qualify for Euro 2012, it's not the end of the world. Blood the youngsters and get them ready for 2014. A long term project with low expectations.