British media and England's performance

Just prior to England’s departure to Germany for the World Cup, the British media went to war to see who the loudest cheer-leader was. Daily articles and commentaries were written about how this England team will win the World Cup and bring home the trophy after a 40-year wait. They created such hype over this team that the fans thought this was the team which was going to sweep away the tournament with style and panache.

Then came the Paraguay game and with England’s woeful performance, knives were beings sharpen. After another uninspiring match yesterday, the dailies continued to write with a positive spin but with some words of warning asking the team to buck up or return home empty handed. They have not started vilifying anyone yet, but that I think will start as soon as England is booted out of the World Cup.

Below are some of the articles and commentaries published today:

• This is from the Guardian: “The truth is that England have no real strategy beyond a reliance on the individual qualities of their big names … ask them to play their way from one end of the pitch to another with co-ordinated passing and movement, and they are lost. As things stand, it will have been a poor World Cup if they make it much further. And all the way is, just now, unthinkable.”

• The Mirror’s view was this: “Most depressingly of all, England looked ill-prepared. Woefully ill-prepared. Until Rooney and Aaron Lennon came on, there was no urgency, no evidence of a plan.”

• The Sun said: “On the face of it, six points, no goals conceded from two games and qualification from Group B with a game to spare is a fantastic start. But it masks the truth. England are not living up to their star-billing as one of the WC favourites.”

• The Times said this: “You might not think there was a cloud on England’s World Cup horizon if you tuned in purely for the last seven minutes. Some hard questions will have to be asked about the previous 83 — and not all the answers will be found in Rooney’s return — but at least Sven-Göran Eriksson has time to ponder his responses.”

• And finally this is from the ex-England captain Terry Butcher: "England have been involved in two of the worst games at the World Cup. This match has told me they must start with Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch in attack in the next match - England must build up momentum."

These attacks will get personal and sharper in the days to come if England do not improve.