bwin Sportsblog - Football - A new start for England or just more false hope?

I watched the England vs Bulgaria game last night and was pleasantly surprised at how well we played which I thought was a huge improvement on the World Cup although that is hardly difficult is it? However having said that, despite really encouraging performances from Jermaine Defoe, Joe Hart and Adam Johnson then I still thought that we showed the same defensive lapses that have haunted us in previous years. Bulgaria came very close to making it 1-1 before England made it 2-0 shortly after. I think that England will qualify comfortably in this group and that could be basically cemented if they win in Switzerland on Tuesday. In a group which only has five teams then England’s two biggest obstacles are Switzerland and Bulgaria and to beat them both in the opening games would almost see England through with only the away fixture in Sofia as being the only potential blip. Although after England’s World Cup debacle then you can hardly take anything for granted! But if we cannot learn from the colossal mistakes that were made in South Africa then we want our heads examining. Capello is a great coach and a very clever man, but he knows that he made big errors during the World Cup and hopefully they will be corrected and see us moving on and having a good qualification campaign along with a good tournament in 2012. As good as Paul Scholes is, he is certainly not the future at 35 years of age and neither is David Beckham. Scholes will be 37 come the Euro’s and 39 by the next World Cup so why use him? That would be nothing but another short term fix and in my mind a selfish one designed to protect the reputation of a manager who cannot afford any more slip ups.