I am off to Spain for a few days and in a hurry, so theis blog will be brief, but ask yourself this question…………..

Are England unlucky, mentally weak or just not very good at football?

My friend Stewart argues quite forcibly that the England football team is a reflection of society as a whole and that other teams like Germany have the mental strength to overcome adversity, where the English use it as an excuse and can’t raise themselves from a setback such as Robert Green’s career threatening howler against the USA.

I actually think that England played quite well, and a freak mistake took some getting over, but even after that the game was still there to be won and Heskey should have scored one of the chances that came England’s way. What was apparent, was the England have perhaps 4-5 really good players and a lot of average ones as shown in the substitutions. I have said in a previous blog that Cappello can only work with the tools at his disposal, and England seem to have a shocking lack of depth in so many areas.

However this World Cup is full of teams like England and one brilliant one (Spain) so one mistake is not the end (better now than in a Semi Final) and I still expect England to qualify through the group comfortably, but we must realise that we are not better than anyone else, we have no history to suggest that.

Lacking in ability is one thing, having weak mental strength is another, but Stewart’s point is a valid one, though an error in the first game cannot prove anything yet, you can only judge that over the next week or hopefully four.

Off to the Sun………..back Weds