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England’s
abject performance in their 2-1 defeat to France at Wembley, on
Wednesday, created a huge media backlash the following morning,
although one fact was largely overlooked.

While Fabio
Capello’s experimental team was outclassed for virtually the entire
match, there were some very good English Premier League players on
display at Wembley. The trouble for Capello was they were playing for
France. Fullback Bacary Sagna, who provided the pass for Mathieu
Valbuena’a goal, which put France 2-0 ahead, and Samir Nasri, who
largely ran the match with a brilliant midfield display, both earn
their keep playing for Arsenal.

The London club also had two players in
the England team – fullback Kieran Gibbs winning only his second cap,
and the largely anonymous Theo Walcott, who was replaced at halftime
after a frustrating night on the right wing. Chelsea’s Florent Malouda
also had a huge impact, creating Karim Benzema’s opening goal after 16
minutes. But the French trio’s performances, along with those of the
outstanding Yoann Gourcuff and Benzema, continually illustrated the
technical gulf in class between the sides.

Arsene Wenger,
Arsenal’s hugely successful French manager and ideally placed to judge
the merits of the two sides, told The Sun newspaper: “It’s despairing;
the (England) team were without fight. As soon as England won the ball
back they lost it again. They lost the ball straight away on the first
pass. They avoided tackles. There was only one team on the pitch. The
richness of a country’s football is assessed by the depth of its
players. When there are five players missing for England you don’t see
much in reserve to take up the challenge. There were too many players
not at the right level to take on this French team.” Former Ireland
international Tony Cascarino, writing in The Times, criticised the
tactics used by Capello, despite the experimental nature of his team.

Capello gave first starts to striker Andy Carroll and midfielder Jordan
Henderson, and instead of starting with his usual 4-4-2 formation,
Capello opted to start Carroll as a single front man. “Andy Carroll can
play up front with anybody,” Cascarino wrote. “The trouble last night
was that he was up front with nobody.”

Vastly superior

France, like
England, are rebuilding their team after a similarly disappointing
World Cup but they displayed vastly superior technical ability on a
rainy night and a slippery pitch. While Laurent Blanc’s team passed and
moved with speed and intelligence, England was largely static and
passed poorly and played like 11 individuals who had only just met.
Even allowing that Capello was experimenting – only three of the
starting line-up played in their World Cup defeat to Germany which saw
them eliminated in the second round – their tactics looked askew.

This frailty again
raises doubts about Capello’s ability to create a side good enough to
challenge for the European title in 2012 and whether the Italian is
still the right man to lead England.

France replaced Raymond Domenech after their World Cup failure, and
under Blanc have shown visible signs of improvement, winning their last
four games and topping their Euro 2012 qualifying group. England, by
contrast, stuck with Capello after the World Cup, and although England
have started their qualifying campaign with two wins and a draw,
Wednesday’s poor display shows he is a long way behind Blanc in his
plans for the future.

According to most of the British media on
Thursday, that future should be very short-lived. Few criticise him for
making changes to the side and playing some young players, but the
media were unanimous in criticising the performance England produced as
a result.