The pressure of playing at home?

After England returned home after a very poor showing in South Africa manager Capello promised there would be changes in both approach and personnel. Qualifying for Euro 2012 started with two comfortable wins against what looked like decent opposition in Bulgaria and Switzerland away. Bringing a couple of younger players like Adam Johnson and Joe Hart into the squad and giving them a chance to show what they had also helped to work on the relationship between coach and fans.

OK, it’s England and the expectations of the fans are unreasonable, but they are only as good as their last game. And it was not impressive to watch.

Tuesday night against Montenegro the same tactics that were found wanting in South Africa were back in evidence. During the summer Capello’s 4-4-2 looked poor when compared to teams like Germany, Holland and Portugal with their free flowing, less ridged game.

Capello has excuses. Injuries, especially to strikers took away a few of his first choice players, but. The continuing poor form of Wayne Rooney is a cause for worry and takes away any creativity the team has, Capello built this team around Rooney and when he does not perform they seem desperately short of creativity.

Both players missed a couple of good chances and England had a decent penalty shout after what looked like a deliberate handball in the Montenegro box during the first half. The visitors did what Scotland failed to do against the Czech Republic; they came to get a 0-0 draw and come away with a point. It was difficult to find too much positive in England’s performance.

Lets not forget, England has taken 7 points from a possible 9 and are in a good position. While they did not play like world-beaters they should be able to break down Montenegro at home. The team does remain unbeaten and should qualify. They created a few decent chances, but could not finish them. After the disappointment of last summer I’m probably over reacting, after all it was only one game, but I do wonder if has Capello learned any lessons from the World Cup?

England plays France at Wembley next month and game after that is not until February when they travel to Copenhagen to play Argentina in another friendly. It’s a chance for Capello to try something different, blood a few new players and give us a glimpse at what he has in mind to try to keep up with the evolution of the game we see from the top continental sides.

The next competitive game is a big one, they play Wales in Cardiff at the end of march. Come away from that with anything other than a win and the FA will be facing a huge call for change. Unfortunately history shows the FA listens to public opinion, look no further than the appointments of Keegan and Hoddle to show that.

Capello needs to show that he did learn something from the summer and is doing more than just seeing out his contract with England.