England beat Croatia convingly, it seems. I'm not big on the whole football-thing, but why were England able to put in that sort of perfomance last night, but put in such a crappy performance against Croatia a few months ago...?

Capello tried something new. He had the courage to leave Beckham on the bench and put Walcott on to great effect as Croatia where expecting Beckham, the switch to Walcott gave the team confidence coming forward that they lacked against Croatia last time. The lack of Gerrard in midfield again made Lampard more free to come forward and feed wide. Add to this Rooney picked up on the fact that he didnt need to drop so deep as he had been in recent outings for England and come the 2nd half he was back to his more familiar self, running at defenders and causing problems.

I think also Slaven Bilic overhyped his players causing complaincency.

I just hope we can take that performance through to the rest of our games in the group.

Yea ab is right, with beckham on the bench the whole team improves, I'm glad capello did that the previous managers didnt have the guts.

e.g. one match there was shaun wright phillips playing an ace game and there was beckham playing useless as usual, they took shaun wright phillips off and left beckham on, i was totally shocked! Needless to say we lost lol

We need to drop Beckham, he may have been good in his day, but he's old and losing histouch and he just brings the whole side down.

This is what watching England is all about, one step forward two steps backwards. A great result but i'm not counting any chickens yet. It's the annoying truth about England you know that on thier day they can beat anyone, but thier days are few and far between

yea on paper we have one of the best teams there is, but you have to look at the facts...we couldnt even make euro 2008 what are our chances in the world cup with the likes of Brazil and Argentina?

This is probably a very basic question, but - in the long run - was a good thing that we didn't qualify for Euro 2008? Apart from a change in manager, has it forced changes to the team or the way the team plays that will make it stronger?

I understand what you mean and I think that after failure to qualify we either had to rip the squad up or change the manager (or do both). There hasnt been many wholesale changes to the squad since non-qualification other than the introduction of Walcott and on occassion Glen Johnson, Joleon Lescott and David Bentley so I think it has been largely due to Capello's introduction as manager, his willingness to move on and leave Beckham on the bench and recognise the need to get younger players on is refreshing.

Historically Capello starts slowly in a new job (apparently) but with England everything seems to have come good on one night as they werent that brilliant against Andorra, so I am hoping we can carry last nights form over to the remaining games in the group.

So we'll be joining FBG in not taking a census of our domesticated fowl just yet, then...?

I think as fans of England we are all guilty of being too harsh on the manager sometimes. We have to remember how hard a job managing any international team is in terms of having any quality time with players prior to a match. Largely Capello is reliant on players carrying current club form into playing just as well for their country, and so often that isnt always the case as even the best players usually do so well largely because of the team they are in week in week out. They rely on assists form other players and get used to playing in the same formations or tactical style of play. Then they are off to a 2 day (at best) training camp and asked to play in unfamiliar formations or with tactics.

You could of course argue that the salaries players are on adaptability should be a key characteristic of their abilities.

So it's 4 wins out of 4 for England the best ever start to a World Cup qualifying campaign ever. I watched the last two matches against Kazakhstan and Belarus and it has cemented for me the fact that England finally has a manager that has control of the team.

Note last night the marked difference in performance in the 2nd half after a poor response to our opening goal resulting in an equaliser (brilliantly worked goal) by Belarus. England came back out with a tweeked set up and ran outright winners over a tiring Belarus side. Note also after the game Rio Ferdindand said the job still isnt done yet and there is more hard work to come. A rarity in recent years - previously any half decent performance has led to players almost assuming they would qualify for tournaments.

Capello hasnt really changed the personel so he must have changed the mentality of the squad. I suppose the test will come when we have to play a major side again (Spain, Germany, etc) to see how the team holds up under that type of pressure.

I am not saying that the England team have been overhauled (experience tells me not to get too carried away) but we are finally going in the right direction beating teams we should do.

According to sky sports news this morning, we are current 4th favourites to actually win the world cup.. is it just me or is this the fans getting over excited and the bookies taking advantage of that?

3-1 england against belarus was a good match went to the pub to watch it haha

Lets hope this continues

But favourites for winning, bit early to say that

opps sorry, i meant 4th favourites lol

that kinda makes more sense

we've had a great start and Capello does seem to have taken them by the bollox and got them to play a bit. But as AB said do not count any chickens just yet, it's been 4 wins 1 against decent oposition 1 against average oposition and 2 against bad oposition. Let's see where we stand this time next year before we start to think we are a decent team. As for saying we will win the world cup.........don't make me laugh ffs

Another victory under our belts and this time against decent opposition as we beat Germany in Berlin 2-1. I think it was a very good performance considering the lack of first teamers we had going into the match, and (Carson/Terry incident aside) we can take alot of hope from the performance knowing we have a decent enough "shadow" squad to step in when needed and to help the squad develop for the future.

We are stil along way from the finished article but at least we are taking consistent steps to that end at long last.