Capello’s England needs to act as a contraceptive

Many have derided England’s midweek defeat to Spain by saying that as a nation we should be made of sterner stuff.

I think that’s unfair. How many twelve year old Spaniards have you heard about that can impregnate a fifteen year old girl and complete Grand Theft Auto in the same afternoon?

But on Wednesday night hopefully the majority of the countries children were plonked in front of their telly’s watching and learning rather than getting up to any mischief with members of the opposite sex.

We must take a lot from the match in Seville; mainly that we need to become more like the Spaniards.

We need players who are comfortable in possession in any area of the pitch and who dare to play without lumping the ball forward without any clear direction.

At times Spain too play with the old P.E teacher aphorism “if in doubt boot it out” as many times Pique was no-nonsense in defence.

But for England, that style was all too familiar as our attackers struggled to keep possession from hopeful high balls played into them.

There were positives, Shaun Wright Phillips attacked and defended admirably, we welcomed Michael Carrick back to the team, Beckham celebrated 108 caps with glimpses of genius and Carlton Cole looked like he could become a decent member of the squad.

I thought that despite missing Ferdinand, Gerrard, Rooney, Walcott and Joe Cole we did give a decent account of ourselves.

It was definitely a worthwhile exercise and the game has served as a wakeup call to those who feel that England have become Brobdingnagian overnight under Capello.

Even with the return of some big names we’re not and are very much a work in progress.

I’m sure that we’ll top the group in qualifying and give a good account of ourselves in South Africa next summer.

Who knows by then we may have found the right balance of defensive steel and confidence in possession to see us through to that allusive first final since ’66.

God knows we need it…if only to give our school kids something else to do with their time than making babies.