What we saw last night was a glimpse of what Capello intends for England.

I'm certianly not too excited about the performance. After all it was against one of Europe's very average sides .... and a depleted one at that. There were tiems when there were too many players in a confined area of the pitch and you could see the players were sometimes struggling to play the kind of football Capello wanted them to play.

In the end though, what WAS promising is that you can see that the players had it drummed into them that the emphasis was to keep hold of the ball. We saw very few 50 yard passes from one end of the pitch to the other - something that used to drive me nuts during Sven and McClown's time in charge.

The imbeciles who started booing when we kept hold of the ball to the point where it went back to our defence did nothing but embarrass themselves. Were they booing just 10 seconds later when the pasage of play led to Joe Cole forcing a fine stop from the Swiss 'keeper ?

It seems that not only the mentality of the players needs to change, but also that of a lot of supporters.

A chance doesn't have to be created every time we get the ball. Better to keep the ball until an opportunity shows itself rather than trying to force the issue constantly and getting nowhere.

As I said, the players at times looked to struggle with the concept of ball retention, but (hopfully) that will come in time.

The chances the Swiss had last night more often than not came down to individual errors rather than anything fundamental about the system we played.

I thought Gerrard struggled a bit in the first half and didn;t seem sure of his role, but thankfully he kept his head up and ended up having a decent game - but certainly not a Man of the Match game.

That accolade should, without a doubt, have gone to one of Joe Cole, Wayne Rooney or David Bentley. If I had to choose it would've been David Bentley. For his first full cap I thought he was outstanding. The quality of delivery and eye for a pass reminded me very much of David Beckham at his age.

In summary then, a promising start under Fabio Capello, but that's all it is - a start. We've got a long, long way to go ........ but he's the right man to take us there.

Well put Mr P. Spot on, in my eyes on all matters.

this sums it up for me:

a) the fans. what a bunch of numpties booing a period of passing. you can tell they're used to having the ball humped up to a big man up front, and were much happier once we went a bit more direct with Crouch on. Idiots.

b) it was promising, but nothing to get excited about.

c) ditto part b) for Steven Gerrard's performance. a lot better, but also a lot to work on.

d) things should get better with a proven winner as manager in charge. he will take no sh*t, and if his first XI is anything to go by, he will hopefully pick people on merit rather than on reputation. This should be a massive warning to the likes of Lampard, Gerrard, Owen and Beckham. Good!

It'll be interesting to see how things kick on against France away in the next game.

dont see what all the fuss is about Bently he was hardly a threat going forward and was not there on both sides of the ball. Wes Brown had a better game than Bently. Bently turned the ball over 5 times in the first half and he showed he can cross a ball into the stands way off. He was better once Wright Phillips came on because he did not have to run as much. But he still did nothing to earn MOM......

Gerrard you lot are fooking off you rocker for him........he had a hand in both goals and created every oportunity England had on goal. He only gave up possesion twice the whole game and he was stuck in the back until Jenas was subbed.

3 best players on the pitch for England last night for Bentley, Rooney & Joe Cole in that order. David Bentley throughly deserved to be named man of the match rather than Stevie G who I believe had a fairly solid but unspectacular game. Hopefully Capello will stick with Bentley against France. The worst player on the pitch for England was Wes Brown closely followed in my opinion by Jenas, who despite his goal and some brief spells of good play was generally sloppy and showed some poor judgment on the ball.

I was pleased to see England actually playing possession football, attempting a much more patient approach to build up. Although it didn't work amazingly well at the start, it certainly improved as the game went on, and I'm sure as the squad get to know Capello and train more together that will only get better.

For the match against France, assuming Capello sticks with the 4-5-1 I would opt for:

-------------------------------James-----------------------------

--Richards--------Ferdinand------Woodgate------------Cole--

-----------------------------Hargreaves------------------------

---------------------Gerrard---------Barry----------------------

--Bentley-------------------------------------------------Cole--

------------------------------Rooney----------------------------

so Stevie got MoTM when he was not even in the top 3 best players for England?

I would say Upson was rubbish, Brown you say had a poor night but he had to cover for Bently who refused to track back

Funniest post of 2008 so far.

Re: Bentley, I assume you didn't see the cross for Crouch's volley or the couple of chances he created for Rooney?

Keep up the good work Ona.

I'm wondering if Ona actually saw the match, Mr P.

Gerrard created every single opportunity for England?! In what game? Not against the Swiss, that's for certain.

Bentley must have created 3 or 4 very good chances for England in the second half.

Not taking anything away from Gerrard, who did very well for the SWP goal - the old Gerrard would perhaps have been greedy and shot himself, but he squared it along the 6 yard box. Fair play.

He passed the ball (wowzers!) to Joe Cole for the first goal. To say he had a 'hand in the goal' would be generous to say the least though, for me. Joe Cole had a lot to do before boxing the cross...

As for Wes Brown, he was bloody terrible! Any time he was in possession I thought he was gonna fall over the ball.

....but according to you he set up the first goal didn't he ?

How did he do that if he was stuck 'in the back' ?



On second thoughts don't even bother replying as you obviously didn't watch the game.

Gerrard practically put it on a plate for Jenas. He might as well have put it in himself he did so excellently and brilliantly. He was so good in good that I've run out of superlatives for the man, the player, the legend.

soon to be Sir StevieG