fabio, the players or both to blame?

[samwise]

i have to say both.
fabio's choice of player was pretty bad to say the least, had heskey not gone, ferdinand would most likely have been able to continue (unless it was pure fate he was going to get injured) and the entire defence would have had a much better shape.
playing gerrard out of position to fit with his 4-4-2 plans and using heskey as a sub when crouch, who has scored plenty of goals from the bench was left sitting on his arse.

rooney, must have given the ball away more times than any other player in history yet he kept picking him, looked like a man with no interest.
lampard...i just dont get it, how does he keep getting picked when an england shirt stops him from scoring?
not one of the squad that were used actually looked like they had fight in them and really wanted to play from the moment the USA equalised.

[smoker]

Both. But Capello's squad and team selections were abysmal. Same old shite, a team of "hard workers" and a complete absence of any player who can scare the opposition (eg Agbonlahor, Walcott, Crouch). You'd think he consulted Sven before picking his teams.

[Boo]

I think that he was damned most by his refusal/inability to alter the shape of the team. To perist with 4-4-2 was criminal, really.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by smoker

Both. But Capello's squad and team selections were abysmal. Same old shite, a team of "hard workers" and a complete absence of any player who can scare the opposition (eg Agbonlahor, Walcott, Crouch). You'd think he consulted Sven before picking his teams.

Spot on Smokes.

[Eddie]

is anyone else surpried at how little crouch played this world cup and also how capello brought on heskey when we needed a goal?
only reason i can think of is he was trying one last effort to get the best out of rooney by bringing heskey on!

[Boo]

Originally Posted by Eddie

is anyone else surpried at how little crouch played this world cup and also how capello brought on heskey when we needed a goal?
only reason i can think of is he was trying one last effort to get the best out of rooney by bringing heskey on!

It could be. It also had ghastly echoes of the Smith/Linneker incident. The idea may well have been to hold up the ball better.

[smoker]

Originally Posted by Eddie

is anyone else surpried at how little crouch played this world cup and also how capello brought on heskey when we needed a goal?
only reason i can think of is he was trying one last effort to get the best out of rooney by bringing heskey on!

Heskey should not be allowed anywhere near an England squad again. Crouch has the same ability to hold up the ball along with a forward's strike rate and the ability to win the majority of headers.

[Mackemansj1]

Both need to take blame, however once they cross the line its down to the players at the end of the day and the lack of fight and at the final whistle the lack of emotion said it all about the modern day england player.

[The Exile]

A lot of one and a little bit of another.

The main culprits are the players. They just didn't turn up. There is no excuse.

Capello - it must have been a hell of a shock for the players who'd done well in qualifying slumped so desperately. However he didn't help himself by taking such limited options (eg Lennon and SWP are almost identical) and sticking to the plan when it became clear the players weren't listening/interested.

Top managers learn from their mistakes. Capello is one of the top three club managers in Europe if not the world, so we have to assume he's done a bit of learning previously and should give him a chance to remodel a tired squad.

[Il Postino Pat]

Fabio's failings for me include:

Keeper. This should have been known from qualification. It's ridiculous that come the first group game we were still none the wiser which led to an environment which on reflection isn't suprising that it resulted in a howler.

Central defence OK so Terry and Ferdinand are first choice. What was plan B? King apparently was next choice which was flawed by his injury concerns which everyone knows about. However, Harry made clear that he was up to the task. He wasn't. Carragher was next despite being nowhere near the National team since he threw his toys out of the pram. Upson after that due to Carragher managing to get banned after two games. His shortcomings were shown up in the Germany game although I would argue that the Terry/Upson partnership was always going to fail in the way it was set up. Dawson never got a look in despite being one of the better centre backs on last season's performances in the squad. I assume it was because of a lack of experience.

Central midfield Start with the partnership or lack of it between Lampard and Gerrard. it is constantly wrote off and then revisted that it's not even funny anymore. Even worse, when it doesn't work Gerrard goes out on the left and it ruins the entire effectiveness of the team. It got so bad that it meant the team changed formation during the tournament to accomodate this. Out wide - Wright Phillips was wrong for the tournament, the fact that he found himself out wide on the left one game shows how bad a decision it was to take him ahead of Johnson. As frustrating was the fact that Wright Phillips seems to have managed to move ahead of Lennon if the last game is anything to go by. Too many professional players are too limited to the way they can play. Milner's versatility is a breath of fresh air.

Strikers Capello's hands were tied with regards to Rooney. Heskey apart from the first five minutes of the World Cup was not effective at all. Defoe got his goal and probably showed the most of the strikers but I still find him more of an impact player of the bench than a regualr starter. Crouch barely got a look in despite his record.

So from that I think that he did well with his full back selection and even then a lot of people aren't happy with Johnson although I can't find a better English right back.

Despite all this I still blame the players. All was well in qualification.