Friday’s performance was woeful. It was unexplainable from a team filled with so much talent – no wonder Capello looked surprised and sounded stunned in his post match interview.

Capello needs to make some brave decisions, and some big changes (drop Terry, bring in Dawson?!). He strikes me as a man that would listen carefully to his captain, but then make the final decisions on team selection & teams formation himself.

As for the performance so far… ability of a proven manager isn’t a factor, lack of skill clearly isn’t a factor, and neither is money. All I can put it down to is player nerves and dealing with the weight of expectation.

I can’t believe in today’s world, the FA, the clubs and the players themselves haven’t significantly invested in personal coaching to ensure that their mental state match their physical fitness. Other sports stars seem to have thrived on such coaching, as have many business leaders.

In the meantime, is it too much to hope for a decent game on Wednesday and England progressing to the next stage? We’re all going to need a lift after the budget on Tuesday.

I know what you’re saying about pressure and on watching the game Friday night, it would seem that it was pressure rather than being crap (which obviously as individuals they are not) which led to the worst performance I can remember in a long time.

As far as expectation goes I agree also, although I think as a nation we should have high expectations of them. They’re all playing for the top teams week in-week out and should be used to the pressure. When playing in the Champions League, they’ll experience pressure and world class teams/players in abundance.

As for me, for once I’ve not had any expectations this time. All I was hoping for is a squad putting in good performances and to be seen to be working for each other and the shirt….. I’m not doubting for a minute that they are working but the showing thus far has been inenept.

I can understand one or two players having an off day on any given match, but practically the whole bloody team……?

It was painful to watch (very) and I reckon the worst part of it all wasn’t the result as we can still get out of jail – it was the performance.

I’m just hoping I never have to ‘get like the lion’ as I hope they’ll already know….

From a personal point of view it was painful to look at that pitch and see hundreds of millions of pounds worth of money strolling around as if taking a walk in the park. I never could see how such ridiculous sums of money could be justified and after that performance it surely begs a change? How about performance related pay? I don’t think we’d see the apathy then somehow.

That’s it – rant over.