I can see only Brazil and Spain who are clearly better than us but they are just that and you tend not to get upsets at World Cups (in terms of who wins it).
Glen Johnson, Heskey and, to a lesser extent, Green are red herrings - Barry and Lampard are going to be what stops us winning the WC and that shouldn't be too much of a suprise as its the most important area of the pitch.
I've never been sure what Barry does exactly other than smash in 25 penalties a season for Villa.
He doesn't have the passing range to be an Alonso or Pirlo, he isn't defensively sound enough to be a MAkelele and he isn't energetic enough to be a Masch/Gattuso.
If Lampard played AM he would be OK but I saw something that worried me last night and it happened against Holland too:
Lampard passes right or left to a player directly level with him and, no sooner has he played the pass than he "sprints"
forward so he is way beyond the ball.
If the player he passed to has
his pass cut out the opposition will be countering with only Barry between them and our CB's - Imagine that v Spain or Brazil !
Barry has some qualities but is dreadful at one on one challenges when someone with a half-decent amount of pace and skill is running at him - he always steps to the side of them and trips them before holding his hands up.
Lampard cannot play CM as if he is playing ofr Chelsea and has at least 2 deeper midfielders to cover his runs forward.
You either play Lampard as an AM or play a CM instead - this will never work against top class opposition.
Ranieri, Mourinho, Hiddink, Ancelotti - none would play him as part of a 2 man CM but Capello is OK with it.
It ddin't get exposed last night because Croatia's rare counters through the middle were slow and undecisive.
2 players who need singling out for criticism are Eduardo and Kranjcar.
£8.5 m for a Carling Cup striker
You can be a decent CF if you are under 6ft but you need some serious pace and skill - he hasn't and was no threat at all.
A couple of years ago I disagreed with the majority of people who thought Modric was their star and thought that Kranjcar would be better long term.
I figured that Modric would be lost in an increasingly physical game whilst Kranjcar at WC '06 had a hint of Kaka about him due to his build and playing style and would be better - I was wrong.
Modric has gone from strength to strength but the older Kranjcar just hasn't done it for me and was impotent last night - he is wasting his club career too.
Simunic