World Cup musings - Capello culpable

England began their campaign in the way they begin most tournaments. Start the game well, but then fade and, at times, be grateful for the point that would have seriously disappointed them prior to the match.

The Three Lions generally start with eminently winnable games but then fluff their lines after a bright start.

Think Italia '90 against Ireland, Euro '96 v Switzerland or in Japan in 2002 against the Swedish. Now you can add USA in South Africa to that list.

The reasons for the failure to grab all three points are multiple but in each there is one common factor - Fabio Capello.

Take the most obvious disappointment from yesterday, the Robert Green blunder. Sure it was the West Ham goalkeeper's fault (I couldn't believe the way he held his hand up to admit blame, like his team-mates and the rest of the world needed to be told) but the decision to pick him was as inexplicable as the goal itself.

One of Capello's most perplexing statements was when he announced a year ago that he already knew who his number one would be in South Africa. At the time, that had to be David James as he was the man in possession of the number 1 jersey and Green had barely played for the national team.

Clearly the England manager had either been leading us up the garden path or changed his mind.

What baffles me even more, and did so at the time, was not to select the in-form Joe Hart for the friendly against Egypt in March, or for the full 90 minutes in any of the friendlies in May.

To throw Hart in against the United States for his full debut would have been a massive gamble. Yet had he played a few times already, we would have known if he was capable at this level or not. Surely his time has to come in the next game against Algeria.

The decision to select Milner was understandable but to replace him with Shaun Wright-Phillips was not. Joe Cole, who was one of the only England players to emerge with any credit from the last World Cup, was the obvious replacement.

Too many times Wright-Phillips mis-controlled the ball and the effort he had on goal mid-way through the second half was woeful.

But his performance hardly came as a surprise. Ever since the winger's debut under Sven Goran-Eriksson it has been clear that the weight of the England shirt hung heavy on his diminuitive frame.

Furthermore, he does not make the starting eleven for Manchester City, his place going to Michael Johnson. That Johnson did not make the squad and SWP did is another decision that makes little sense.

Then there is the Emile Heskey conundrum. Admittedly, he did well to set up Gerrard's opener but I'm sure Peter Crouch could have laid that ball on for the England captain to score. Then, when it came to Heskey's big moment, baring down on goal, he was left wanting, shooting straight into the grateful arms of Tim Howard.

I recognise we do not have many striking options (Heskey was 350/1 to be top scorer for the tournament and Japan have scored more goals for England than him in the last couple of years) but that leads me to my final point.

To make serious progress in this tournament we will have to play Rooney in his best position - at the top as an out and out striker. Too many times we see Rooney picking up the ball in the centre circle, too far from goal to do serious damage.

I recall Sir Alex Ferguson explaining that he played Rooney as a striker because he felt that was his best position, but also due to the fact that he had an abundance of good midfielders in his squad that he couldn't leave them out.

The same could be said of England. Our strength is in midfield and in terms of forwards, after Rooney we are struggling. I think in the group stage we should stick with 4-4-2 but when we come up against tougher opponents we have to play with Rooney up top and Gerrard in close support like he does for Torres at Liverpool.

The only problem I can envisage with this system is that it is not one we have played before. To not play this formation before is the final decision which could yet haunt Mr Capello.