Don't blame Ronaldo for England's shambolic performances in Germany.

Its been almost three days since England were knocked out of the world cup. I have been busy, but I decided against my usual tactic of posting in the almost immediate aftermath of the event. If I had, it would almost certainly have been merely a list of expletives targeted against a certain Msr. Cristiano Ronaldo.

But I thought no, I’ll wait, I’ll soak in the post-game fall-out that only truly emerges in the days after England’s exit. And, sure enough, scapegoats emerged - notably, the primary target. The figurehead or the moment which supposedly encapsulates the reasons for England’s failure. Since 1990 these have been the primary targets:

1990 – Stuart Pearce/Chris Waddle’s penalty misses

1992 – Graham Taylor – particularly for substituting Gary Lineker

1994 – Graham Taylor

1996 – Gareth Southgate

1998 – Becks

2000 – Phil Neville

2002 – Slightly more complex. A mix of Sven, Becks [for jumping out the tackle], but, overall, ‘the heat’ of Japan and Korea.

2004 – Rooney’s broken foot.

2006 – Ronaldo getting Rooney sent off.

Obviously, not all these persons have been scapegoated in equal measure. Phil Neville and Gareth Southgate may have become near synonyms for disaster and failure in the English football lexicon, but they were never subjected to the hate campaigns that Becks received in 1998, and that Ronaldo will probably receive. The Sun have already published a dartboard cover with his face on it, encouraging his readers to ‘give the tart a dart’. Funny? Perhaps at some base level – but does Ronaldo really deserve this level of hatred? In any case, these moments/people have been taken as excuses for our failures. ‘If only it’d been cooler in Japan’, ‘if only Rooney hadn’t broken his foot’, ‘if only Southgate had scored’ we’d have won. This may be truer in some cases – but what about Ronaldo’s actions?

As most sensible reporters have done, lets review his actions. Rooney had just committed a challenge worthy of a red card, by violently stamping on Carvahlo’s testicles. Ronaldo shouldn’t have run up to the ref to encourage a card [of course he did, he’s lying if he said he didn’t] but do you think the England players would have done nothing if the situation had been reversed? And does this excuse Rooney blatantly raising his arms to another player in front of the referee? Ronaldo was just playing the modern game which, much as we detest it, English players seem hopelessly incapable of getting used to. I’m not saying we should all start diving – as Ian Wright would have it – but if English players lash out at cheating, they’re playing into their opponents’ hands. All the Portugese players knew that Rooney has almost no fuse, let alone a short one. And when this was compounded by Sven playing him ridiculously out of position, it was only a matter of time before he blew. But you don’t see dartboard covers of Sven or Rooney do you? Rooney couldn’t hold his temper, even in the biggest game of his career, while Sven continued to show he has no tactical sense at all. Why shouldn’t Rooney be blamed? If we don’t chastise him now, at what critical moment will he next lose his rag? I'm not condoning Ronaldo's actions , but he was far from the cause of our failure against Portugal.

Sven is not a total idiot. He can be given some credit for sticking by Owen Hargreaves who – and I admit my mistake in writing him off earlier in the tournament – was England’s best player, not just of the match but of the entire tournament. If he could improve his distribution he could be a fantastic holding player. The only other players to come through this debacle with enhanced reputations are John ‘I must be made captain’ Terry, Ash + Joe Cole, and Aaron Lennon. Rio and Gary Neville weren’t abject, but hardly set the world on fire. The rest of the squad seriously underperformed, and I think Sven must be largely held responsible.

Sven can’t do anything about Becks and Lamps loss of form, but he could have dropped them. He didn’t. He could have realised that his marking system was a shambles. He didn’t. He should have realised that changing formations on the eve of the world cup was a mistake. He didn’t. He should have realised that taking only 4 strikers – one of which he obviously had no intention of playing – was sheer folly. He could have tried to get his players to actually play football. Not just knock it around for three or four passes then try a Hollywood ball up front. He could have screamed at Rio Ferdinand to stop taking twenty seconds on the ball, before hoofing a failed long ball over the top every time he had the ball in space. He didn’t. He could have realised that making English players try and play Italian football was hopeless. This has been clear for some time – yet he persisted.

You watched the best teams in the world cup and they played tight passing football, focused on keeping the ball, and either waiting for opportunities to play incisive through balls [note – not hoofed balls over the top] or making quick breaks based on fast, accurate passing.

England’s attack was pathetic in contrast. Against Trinidad, for some 80 minutes, you could have been forgiven for thinking Ferdinand was our playmaker. It was embarrassing. Against Sweden, I wanted England to lose because we were playing so poorly: I thought it might give the side a kick up the backside. But no. We couldn’t even score against a pathetic Portugese side that were so poor that we looked more threatening with ten men. This has to come down to coaching, because the England players are good enough to play decent football together. Too often they looked like 11 individuals, and not a team, however.

This has been England’s worst world cup performance since I started watching football in 1990. We didn’t beat one quality side and we played poorly throughout. I was embarrassed to be an England fan, and it wasn’t until the last hour of the match against Portugal that I really felt any great desire to get behind the team. We were never going to win the shoot-out, despite my one moment of hope when Portugal missed two, and Gerrard stepped up. That Gerrard can belt home penalties for Liverpool [well, except against Jens], score last minute thirty yard screamers in cup finals, and drive Liverpool to win a Champions League final, and yet can cut a continually anonymous figure for England who misses in the shoot out, has to come down to the management. He cannot be completely absolved for the almost astounding waste of his talent at international level, but given England’s tactics, and especially Lampard’s one dimensionality, the onus of blame is not on Stevie.

I have a horrible feeling that a golden generation of players could be squandered through the efforts of McClaren and Sven. It’s almost been too much to bear seeing Venables and O’Neill in the TV studios this summer, while a mediocre manager leads out national side.

The same excuses are trotted out at the end of the tournament, but they contrast markedly to statements given at the beginning. We always, rightly, hear that England weren’t good enough at the end of the tournament, but a full investigation as to why this is never occurs. Especially when we’re told earlier in the tournament by Becks that England supposedly ‘deserve’ to reach the final. How? On what basis did we ‘deserve’ to do well? I strongly suggest this excellent article by Richard Williams, which continues the theme of this point.

England entered the world cup believing, perhaps too strongly, that they had a squad capable of winning the competition. Perhaps they did, but English players have to stop believing that their time will come, and actually make it happen. We can all sing ‘football’s coming home’ but I think a lot of our players either have too little or too much belief to make it actually happen. The only hope for the future is, hopefully, Terry’s captaincy, and, one day, a manager who both understands how to get the most from the English players, and also what football means to people in England. In short, don’t blame Ronaldo. He’s a symptom, not a cause of our decline. As long as shallow reasons for out continual failure are looked at, England will never improve.