England a Ship Without a Rudder: Clueless England Outplayed By France

England as a football team is totally lost. There is no direction, no common goal, no passion, no national pride and no sense of invincibility that used to be part of a home game for England at Wembley. The basics were totally missing as a foreign manager picked second tier players in strange positions and an unfamiliar formation in a match that the public knew was a farce waiting to happen before a ball was kicked.

England was totally outplayed for almost the entire first half; France had England chasing shadows in their own backyard—it was embarassing to watch.  I am not sure that anybody would have been confident of a better outcome looking at the inexperience of a line-up littered with players that can't get in their club sides or haven't played much football this season. 

Unfortunately, I can't see how this can get any better in the current set up. Different players didn't improve on the terrible performances of the World Cup matches and the Montenegro game.

There seems to be a basic lack of understanding of what international football should be about. England versus Montenegro was a team of multi-millionaire superstars against a team whom none of us had ever heard of.  Why wasn't the score 15-0 with Wayne Rooney scoring 10?  I think it is because Montenegro recognizes the fact that they are a team that needs to pull together for their country to achieve a common goal. 

The FA seems to feel that paying a foreigner a ridiculous amount of money will buy the success we crave and a bunch of rich blokes running around believing they are as good as the papers make out will win us something. 

Rooney can win the World Cup on his own, Gerrard is the best midfielder in the world and Rio is world class. Reality check please. John Terry was way out of position for three of Germany's four goals in the World Cup; he would have been subbed on Hackney Marshes.

These boys are good players but deluded when it comes to international football.

The fact that having a foreign manager flies in the face of the principals of international sport and renders it pointless, apparently doesn't come into it.  We are complaining because he is the most overpaid flop football has ever seen, but where would the achievement be for England if a foreigner had led us to victory?

There would be little.

International football should be us against them—if some of them are on our side it makes it all pointless. I don't understand when people propose we adopt Arteta or Cudicini or whoever so that we have a chance of a better team. They are not English and that should be the end of it. It needs to be as simple as that to restore pride in playing in the white shirt of England. 

Until it becomes less about money and more about pride in your country this is all we can expect. The FA need to listen to the thoughts of the people and get rid of Capello and install national pride as incentive number one.