England put in a very listless performance against Algeria. They started strongly enough and within five minutes Steven Gerrard found himself in the box, but he made the wrong decision in eschewing a strike at goal. This lack of confidence exemplified England’s performance – they failed to build upon their reasonable start and began to look edgy and laboured. They were arranged under a 4-4-2 formation, but Gerrard’s presence on the left was less than nominal as he took up a defined central-midfield position. In response, Algeria played a 3-4-2-1 formation and pressed England well, and Les Fennecs were on top for a significant period of the first-half, putting in several dangerous crosses.
England did respond although it was far from explosive stuff: the advanced players linked up well on a few occasions but were mostly limited to long-range efforts. However, a good chance fell to Frank Lampard following an Aaron Lennon cross, but Lampard didn’t connect emphatically with his left foot and M’Bolhi saved. No individual player performed particularly badly in the first period, but as a collective effort it was nervous, stilted and ponderous.
Fabio Capello has usually intervened when England have failed to fire in the past, but it was not possible to discern any meaningful input from the coach on this occasion. The second-half continued in much the same manner, with England players failing to connect with each other consistently. Nothing really went right for them – poor touches and misplaced passes were plentiful and indicated the players’ uneasiness. A couple of attacking moves were contrived but there was no end product. Gerrard was played into the box, but again he looked for a pass when a shot was on. With 15 minutes to go, Lampard and Gerrard linked up outside the box but substitute Jermain Defoe could not latch onto the through-ball. But these were merely fleeting glimpses, and an England breakthrough felt painfully distant.
England will need to beat Slovenia on Wednesday to ignite their tournament. This was a remarkably flat performance, and a confidence boosting victory is much needed. If the form displayed in this game continues, then World Cup 2010 will be over quite soon for Capello’s boys! [Player ratings below.]
6 Jamie Carragher: A solid display, marred by a yellow card which puts him out of the Slovenia game.
6 Ashley Cole: On his own on the left, he was defensively sound without showing much in attack.
6 Gareth Barry: Although he didn’t seize hold of midfield, he was fairly assured in possession upon his return to the side.
6 David James: The little he had to do, he did well enough. Took one tricky cross well.5 John Terry: Like Carragher, he was solid enough but one back-pass was badly underhit.
5 Glen Johnson: A couple of errors and not much presence supporting attacks.
5 Frank Lampard: Tidy in possession in the first-half, he didn’t impose himself sufficiently overall.
5 Steven Gerrard: Made a couple of poor decisions in advanced positions, but he still linked up well with teammates on occasions.
5 Aaron Lennon: Apart from a couple of nice crosses, he made little impression on his flank.4 Emile Heskey: Worked hard but he never really got hold of the ball; mishit one cross badly and crossed on another occasion when he should have shot.
4 Wayne Rooney: His touch was poor and his involvement was slight – a worrying display from England’s talisman.
England had no leadership, anger, urgency, sharpness, belief or thought.
Algeria had all of the above.
Rooney looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Crouch should have been given at least 30 minutes. Johnson was a yard off the pace of the game. Carragher and Terry played like the Keystone Cops.
Room for improvement!