England vs Algeria

Oh for fuck's sake.

I was fairly pissed so didn't quite appreciate the technicalities of system etc., yet could probably bang on and on about this fucking monstrosity until the cows come home, so I'll just summarise my thoughts here:

1) Rooney was shit. I know he wants to play up-front, and fair enough, but it is quite possible to cause damage with movement from deeper lying positions, as Ozil, Donovan, Elano, half the Chile team have shown in the tournament. If Rooney is sulking over his position, he needs to get over himself. Otherwise, I'd have to suggest that he is not fit; that was as poor as I have ever seen him play.

2) Lampard was shit. I have defended Frank many times, and it is coming back to bite me on the arse with every misplaced pass or ten minutes that passes with him doing sod all. I would drop him and pick either Milner (may be outclassed, but won't hide) or Carrick (lightweight, poor form, but can PASS the ball). If he played like he does for Chelsea or in qualifying, he would be a world beater. He doesn't, and isn't, so fuck it.

3) Are they fit? I know Souness is a fucking idiot, but might he have a point with regard to altitude conditioning?

4) I fully understood the reasoning and backed the decision to select Heskey. However, since it's not working, he needs to be dropped. I guess that will be it for him; I hope people are able to remember that while he only scored eight goals for England (or whatever), one of them was the fifth in Munich, and one of them was in a World Cup knockout stage win. It may be sometime until any England player achieves that again.

5) Capello had every right to try his assymetric 4-4-2 with Gerrard coming into field and Rooney dropping off when he had his first choice players available, as I asserted last week. Given the fact that this formation was unable to cope with the fairly predictable Algerian packing of the midfield means we probably should switch the system and move to play three central midfielders. Barry and Gerrard (probably be default) stay, I would bring in Carrick and put either Milner or Joe Cole on the left wing (I'd recommend a bit more perspective on the Joe Cole issue though; he was hardly pivotal for Chelsea this year, and has disappeared in an England shirt many times. He's not fucking Messi). I might give Lennon one more chance on the right, with strict orders to stay wide. Otherwise the other of Cole and Milner would be there as well, although that would leave us pretty slow. That would leave Rooney upfront by himself, as I'm sure he would love. It's not a great team, but probably better suited to the match than the one we just finished the game with.

6) When the presiding topic of conversation about the match is that if Beckham was playing at the age of 35, you would have won, you played really fucking badly.