Do me a favor. Count the number of major tournaments in which you have supported England and ended up disappointed. 99% of you reading this will vote for 100% disappointment. Do me another favor, will you? Count the number of times when you have expected Rooney to shine in major tournaments and you have ended up content with the result. Another favor, pretty please okay? Promise. Last one. Count the number of times you have expected England to play a certain system (formation, attacking, defensive – whatever) and they have complied. Ok ,enough. Let’s get on to reasoning, shall we? So what exactly is wrong with the English football team?

There are various facets to this. I’m not going into all of those because I don’t want this article to have the size of the Bible; but of all, what I get most irked about is the hype England players receive before every major tournament. I mean c’mon, how good is England? As a team, I would not rate them higher than Sweden (who failed to qualify), or Ivory Coast. Heck make the two said teams play in a match and I bet the ageing Drogba would still cause ripples in that English defense. England has had some supreme (read: average) players over the years. The Lampards and the Gerrards always seem to turn up like heroes when playing for their club. Not so much when playing for their country. How many times have you seen those two and Rooney rise from the brink and win matches for their club? Countless.

Well, has England really performed well in any major tournament in the past 15 years? Truth be spoken, and it has become somewhat of a cliché – England is not a team, but a group of talented footballers. I say talented, not world-class. I don’t compare Gerrard to Pirlo, or Xavi, or Zidane. I don’t compare Rooney to Zlatan, or Ronaldo, or Suarez. The non-English competitors are much more superior to their much feeble English counterparts. One reason. They perform in big matches when the team needs them to and they have proved it. So again, I come to the same question in a different angle – what is wrong with the English footballers?