Watching England ain’t fun at the best of times

England 4 - 0 Moldova - World Cup qualifier - September 6th, 2013

watching that game with a stinking cold.

Well, hell that just ramped up the misery. Repeatedly told that others don’t put 4 or 5 past Moldova the way England do sums it up. And if you’re England’s bunny then isn’t it time to call it quits?

You sit through the drivel and then are told that Steven Gerrard is man of the match. Which should bring a smile to your face. Not a smile of pleasure but a grin of ridicule. Playing the deep lying role – against Moldova apparently we needed that – he came under no pressure had all the space in the world and what did he actually do?

Oh, wow he scored, for the first time in how many years? For once he managed to get his knee over the ball and not his big curly toe underneath it, for once it went into the net not row z. Oh he played a couple of decent through balls, but only a couple and didn’t we hear about them while the rather larger number of inept over-hit glory-balls that, as per usual, didn’t find a white shirted player were very quickly glossed over.

Did he, or indeed any of the other midfielders provide any service to Lambert up front? No. Lamaprd minced about and did bugger all. Wilshere, in between struggling with breath in, breathe out and left, right, left, tried at least to run at the Moldovans but lost the ball in the process and his through balls were persistently either a day late or a dollar short.

If the midfield had been that commanding, deserving their 9s, 8s or 7s, why did Lambert have to drop deep and turn provider? He provided two great balls for Welbeck’s brace. Scoring another he did more than Gerrard. But then those that spent all week saying you can hear Roy scraping the bottom of the barrel and Lambert is all he’s got while simultaneously patting the Southampton striker on the head – hasn’t he done well to get here – would have to admit they got it wrong.

He deserves to be there. Deserves it more than players who have been there and not done it for England over the years.

But with a big bloke up there why did Roy pick players who won’t or can’t cross the ball. Cole is useless on the left, while Baines is one of the most prolific crossers in Europe. Walnutt was just repeatedly brushed off the ball with ease, in between tripping over his own feet. And Welbeck is a striker -as he’s shown with his England goals of late – not a winger.

Now we’ve just got to look forward to another member of the undeserving 100 caps club.

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