England need to make big changes

We have to be careful not to let the big issue of England's defeat to Germany be missed in the subsequent fallout: England were terrible and terribly managed.

Frank Lampard had a perfectly good goal not given and Sepp Blatter will surely roll out an excuse for why he is right to ignore calls for goalline technology. Both are big issues but the goalline-technology debate has been a big issue for a long time. The case for goalline technology has to be championed but it is a debate for another day. Whether Lampard's goal had been given or not is pretty much irrelevant as Germany were in a different parish in terms of class and, in my opinion, would have won in any case.

England had a ten-minute spell when they were on top, but for the other 80 minutes they were chasing shadows. That England's keeper was the best player in a 4-1 drubbing speaks volumes. We witnessed the sight of John Terry, for so long a player that you could set your clock by in terms of reliability, fail to grasp the concept of altitude and Matthew Upson fail to grasp the basic concept of defending.

Steven Gerrard, Lampard and James Milner cannot be accused of a lack effort - they were simply outperformed by a slick Germany midfield. This was a Germany midfield that deployed the luxury player that was Mesut Ozil. He spent the whole game simply drifting into gaps, working space and hurting the opposition. England did not have the capacity to deal with him or the ability to hit back because the manager does not believe such players can be carried. Germany can breathe a sigh of relief that Joachim Low does not sing from the same hymn sheet.

What also cannot be overlooked is England were carrying passengers. Gareth Barry is a quality player but a clearly unfit one. His touch at times was awful and the way Ozil gave him a five-yard start and still went past him had to be seen to be believed. The only excuse for Barry's impression of wading through treacle was a lack of sharpness. And the manager must take the blame for deploying a player who could not do the job.

The other passenger was Wayne Rooney. It is not in doubt that he is the nation's best player, but he looked a shell of a man and has done all tournament. He has not been fit since damaging his ankle against Bayern Munich and then being rolled out for the second leg of Manchester United's Champions League clash and going over the ankle again. The subsequent groin injury will have been picked up on account of him overcompensating for the ankle problem. It is commendable that he wanted to play but he was not up to the task and the manager should have been big enough to have seen this and put someone else in his place. There was no power in the Rooney legs and without that he is half the player. Capello clearly felt that a half fit Rooney was better than his other forward options. That was not the case.

The other concern from the Germany game was Capello's refusal to change his system. At 3-1 down it was not really the time to take off the most likely source of a goal, Jermain Defoe, and replace him with another striker. If he wanted to throw on Emile Heskey then it would have been better to take off a defender or midfielder and play three up top. Yes it would have given Germany more space but it would also have given them something new to think about. To go out of the World Cup without rolling the dice is not acceptable.