A very useful outing; we learned a lot about who is waiting in the wings. Clearly Dyer was dreadful and he should be forgotton forthwith. Carrick isn't ready. Lampard and Gerrard can't play together. Crouch is a 20 minute player when defences are tiring. Wright-Phillips needs regular football and he isn't going to get it at Chelsea, and even if he does he is probably too small for international football. Phil Neville is no use as a left back.

In order to qualify England needs to bring back Paul Scholes. In another couple of seasons, by playing alongside him, Michael Carrick may have learned enough to replace him. It might even be worth calling for David Beckham in the short term. Bring him on with Crouch in the last 20 minutes.

Terry Hamblin, Bournemouth, UK

Totally disagree with D Billington. Neville, A. Cole, J.Cole and Ferdinand can be classed in that category.
We have players as good as any other team out there and a 'potentially' great team.
McClaren is the journeyman here and it is a shame to see him making the same weak decisions as Eriksson, mostly in not recognising that Lampard and Gerrard cannot play well together, certainly nowhere near as much as their collective talents would suggest.

The great tragedy is, in years to come, we will most likely look back at the Eriksson and McClaren years as a huge waste of the undoubted talent in our squad, because neither could make the tough decisions to mold England into a great team of great talents, playing a system that suits our strengths rather than the shambolic mess that has characterised England recently.

Allan R, London,

Am I the only person in this country to think that Peter Crouch does not have the ability to play at international level? He can't jump without putting his hands on the defender's shoulders and does not have the composure in the box that is necessary at international level. McClaren has surely played him enough to know he can't cut it at this level so why not try someone else.

John, London, UK

I am amused that the Manager claims it is difficult for the England team to play its best football with half the 1st team unavailable. Watching the match yeaterday I failed to spot any difference between the standard of play between the team on the field and the team that went to the world cup. When are we going to admit to ourselves that the England International team is pretty awful, they show a complete lack of desire, very little creativity, and in far to many cases an inability to master basic ball control or passing. Neville and others on the team may feel that the supporters are less than supportive at the end of each game. Frankly, the players should feel lucky that anyone shows up at all to watch this sort of rubbish!!

Chris Holbech, Banbury, England

The left side of the midfield and not having a player (a Ronaldinho, a Zidane type) that can make the difference, those are two key areas that limit the English National Team. Some good players (Gerrard, Terry, Owen, Ferdinand, Rooney) but no great players.

Victor, Liverpool, UK

Sack Mclaren now before its too late.

Chris, Manchester, England

Just so i know for analysing future England games, can anyone explain to me why Woodgate is to blame for being pulled out of position? should he of just let the brilliant David Villa run to the wing and recieve the ball without a challenge? surely he would then get blamed for bad marking or ball watching. Helen and I believe that the game was that boring that Matt Dickinson had fallen asleep and asked his far less knowledgable friend what went wrong.

Lee, scunthorpe,

Well, England's manager IS Steve McClaren, who has never won anything as a manager, and whose previous job was as the manager of .. Middlesborough. Im sorry but, for the top job of being the England manager, a team that hopes (note the use of the word "hopes" and not "expects") to win the European Championship, that is a pathetic CV.

Pete, Cov,

It's the old problem - a team of Englishmen is a complete anachronism these days. Individually these guys are made to look good in the Premiership because they're generally surrounded by 10 skilful, creative team mates who aren't English. Pluck them out of their Premiership comfort zones and stick them all together as one team and their mediocrity is cruelly exposed. How well would the England team do if they played in the Premiership? About as well as Middlesbrough would be my guess. Gosh, what a coincidence.

J Hicks, Sunbury, England

poor result but more importantly poor perfromance and a manager that seems to have very little back bone for dropping one of his centre midfield pair of Lampard and Gerrard. The pair have had 3 or 4 years to try and work out how to play together and as of yet have shown very little appitite for working on the positional differences. When Hargreaves is fit he must come in for Carrick with Lennon on the right and Joe Cole when fit on the left but till he comes back Gareth Barry should be given this role. This would then leave the better of these 2 talented midfield players to dominate and dicate the tempo of Englands play which is something Gerrard can do more efficently than Lampard.
The few good points about last night were Foster in goal looked very assured and had no chance with the goal and Richards looked powerful when he came on and a natural to take over form Gary Neville. The worst things were SWP on the right not a patch on Lennon and Phil Neville with no left foot.

Richard, Coventry, England

Strikes me that the problem is not the manager but the players. England has not more than one quality striker (Rooney) and plays with little or no passion. How many defeats will it take to recognize that the problem is the players?

John, London,

Agree totally with D Billington. Gerrard, Rooney, Hargreaves, Owen and Terry are probably the only players of true European/World standard. As for the Premier League, without all the foreign imports it would be a very sad sight indeed.
P Jansson, London

P Jansson, London, UK

I'm afraid that the pundits ( who have cushy jobs to protect) are wrong in their assessment that we have the best league in the world. The shortcomings of the grossly overpaid mainly journeymen players are glaringly exposed at International level. The main problem is of course, that these mainly under talented players have come to believe in their own overstated skills.

D Billington, Worthing, England