WC2010: Why England won’t win the World Cup

Question. Can England really win the World Cup? My heart says yes. But my head says no chance in hell.

Agreed. We have some of the greatest talents in World football. The World Cup Odds are always short.  With Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard the two main cogs that get the English machine well and truly in overdrive, but can the rest of the team rise to the challenge?

11/2 (various firms) is a ludicrous price for a nation who have failed to really set the international scene alight since that summer’s day in 1966. Dont forget though you can claim free World Cup bets from online bookmakers.

There have been glimpses of brilliance in recent tournaments, remember Waddle and Pearce’s penalty misery in Italia ‘90 and who can forget Gazza’s outstretched boot centimetres away in Euro 96 against Germany.

England to let themselves down

Steven Gerrard quickly needs to recapture his form with Liverpool if England are to have any chance of lifting the trophy.

Since, petulance has been England’s downfall. David Beckham in ’98 and Wayne Rooney in ’04, both times the country expected so much but yet again was disappointed by premature exits.

Yes. There have been poor refereeing decisions, think back to Sol Campbell’s disallowed header against the Argies in 2006 and we have always faltered under the pressure of beating the goalkeeper from 12 yards in the lottery of penalties.

With all this in mind, can you really trust putting your hard earned cash on the World Cup coming home from South Africa next year?

On paper we have a decent team who should breeze through the preliminary stages. Algeria, USA and Slovenia should be comfortable victories but England are likely to be tested in the latter rounds.

To win a World Cup, you need a squad, not just the odd piece of brilliance.

Defensively there are many areas we can falter. Between the posts there is not one world class option with the inconsistent Rob Green (see the howler against Bolton) probably holding the No.1 shirt at the moment. In a World Cup you need a frugal back four. John Terry is a rock but Rio has been dodgy and both Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson are more interested in flying down the flanks and if we come up against the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could be found out in the rearguard.

Pushing on to the midfield. Gerrard is immense and with his pace and power can harm any nation. Lampard and Barry are sound but can sometimes get lost in big games and then it comes to the same old adage of who to have out on the right. Should Beckham be there for experience or Walcott or Lennon for pace? Either way, you look at Spain’s midfield of Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso and Senna who completely tore us apart earlier in the year and we don’t compare

In the final third, Rooney is a dead cert to play but is his temperament going to let Capello’s men down again and who will play up top with him. Heskey works for the team but at the end of the day, goals win matches and he is hardly prolific in the Three Lions jersey. Defoe and Crouch have decent scoring records but mostly against the lower teams and then you have Darren Bent or Gabriel Agbonlahor who are miles away from International quality.

On the surface England have a good team but if you dig deeper you find a severe lack of quality. England had an impressive qualification to the finals, but did they come up against any difficult opposition, I think not.

When we have played a world class outfit we have been played off the park. A 2-0 annihilation at the hands of favourites Spain (9/2 Bet365) and Brazil (11/2 Bet365), a team with an amazing pedigree in the competition, passed their way through a brittle under strength England side. This latest chapter of the England friendly campaign highlighted massively that our second string is unable to cope with the world’s best and I fully expect England to struggle to make it to the final four, let alone the final.