More swearing please

The England team have restored the faith of their supporters. Well, they haven't gone that far perhaps (let's be realistic, this is a good Swiss team, but it is their first competitive game under new management), but this was certainly the best performance in a long time, with aggression and commitment not seen since before the world cup. Perhaps most promisingly, England have come across a style of play which is naturally suited to the English players. Learning from France's demolition of Switzerland during the world cup, Roy Hodgson and his team had prepared with a view to hitting the Swiss on the counter attack - and it worked, with England's two goals coming from swift attacks on the break. While this is clearly a weakness of the Swiss team, it is a style of play well suited to this team, with pace in abundance (imagine when Walcott is back in the team) and the players brought up on the fast action and end to end football of the premier league.

While in the past, the press has lamented the absence of 'technical' players capable of controlling the game from an advanced position up the pitch, a focus on passing out of defence , rather than relying on the long ball is much more critical. In Spain, youngsters are forced to pass out of defence, this kind of training for England's young players wouldn't mean that they have to practice tiki taki football - but it could be combined with the English preference for fast direct football with powerful effect.

The only problem with adopting such a counterattacking style, is what to do when the opposition don't play fair, and also sit back and defend, such as during the Norway game. Then the players need to be able to adapt and adopt different ways to get the ball in the back of the net, which can only come from leadership on the pitch to communicate a required change.

Finally, a big well done is due to the Arsenal players who appeared in Stonewall's rainbow laces advert (in partnership with a major bookmaker). It was funny, self-deprecating and for a very good cause. And, given footballs perceived hostility to the gay community, a brave decision for them to be involved. While its painful to promote a bookmaker, posting this link is more than worth it.

A new chapter. The same story.

This blog previously asked for a bolder choice of England captain than Wayne Rooney, so it is predictable that this article is going to take issue with the 'new chapter' promised by Wayne Rooney that would form under his captaincy. But in this instance it is difficult to follow an unpredictable pathway.

Although England secured a win, and Rooney the winning goal, it was an uninspiring performance and also, perhaps more depressingly, raises the spectre of much dreary debate to come. Perhaps most disappointingly, there is no sign of a new culture of commitment to the England team, with mass substitutions at the end of a lifeless friendly the symptom. Surely Rooney, on his debut as England captain, would have demanded that he plays the full 90 minutes to lead his team? Unfortunately, Rooney also seems to lack the natural leadership demanded by this role, as he sat glumly in the stands rather than welcoming substituted players off the pitch as other support staff and players did. Also, his performance has also been questioned, and the performance of Welbeck deemed to be of higher standard. Sadly for Welbeck, he won't start the next game against Switzerland as dropping Rooney will be unthinkable for the England management. Although this blog has previously championed Joe Hart as captain, perhaps better, given the current team, would be to issue the captaincy on a short term basis, in order to keep competition high and provide flexibility in case of a drop in form - particularly important at the moment as few players other than Sterling seem to have their positions unquestioned.

But it is unlikely that the status quo will shift in the short term, and England's malaise will continue, with ever dwindling crowds. Roy Hodgson has blamed this on the quality of the opposition, which certainly is part of the cause, but more critical is the lack of connection between the national team and the public. Until this is corrected, which will only be done by performances of more commitment and verve, the attendances will remain low.

But of more concern from last evening's game was the return of the lazy 4-4-2 is rigid argument. Does anyone else not realise that rigid is an incredibly empty and useless description of a formation? By all means say that a formation is ill-suited to a team or opposition and give the rationale for it - but to lazily describe it as 'rigid', purely on the basis of the fact that it is a nice sounding description that has become a widely accepted truism is a waste of everyone's time. Another concern is an emerging debate on whether Wilshere and Henderson can work in midfield together, bringing back bad memories of the Lampard-Gerrard debate. Either they can play well together or not - please can the debate move on from trying to crowbar the best players into a team and start discussing how to select the best team, which isn't necessarily made up of a collection of the best players. Sadly this debate will probably rumble on, as correspondents insist on recycling tired old storylines and phrases.