Many reasons have been suggested by managers, players, fans and the media for what the route of the problem is in the English national team.

 

After a summer where a major tournament took place which England missed out on, last night's friendly against the Czech Republic was the perfect chance for a new beginning.

 

Instead the same problems arose once more including the ongoing debate on whether two of the country's top midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard can play together.

 

It is unreal as to why both players can't combine their talents in midfield and give England a solid base but currently they seem to limit one another.

 

As both are firstly attacking minded individuals when one goes forward the other feels a need to cover the space left wary of a counter attack, which the Czechs took advantage of superbly at Wembley.

 

The solution was thought to be playing a holding midfielder in between the back four and midfield being Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry, Owen Hargreaves or Ledley King.

 

All four are more than capable of sitting in the area around the centre circle and breaking up attacks and regaining possession in the Claude Makelele role.

 

If Fabio Capello decides to use that 4-5-1 system he then risks weakening the influence of Wayne Rooney up front who rarely performs well as the lone striker.

 

The other option could be to go with a 4-4-1-1 using the same system in midfield with a diamond style and this would give Dean Ashton, Michael Owen, Jermain Defoe, Gabriel Abonglahor, Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch the chance to help Rooney out. 

 

Another alternative is to just freshen up the squad with new names like Ashley Young, Tom Huddlestone, Joe Hart, Gabriel Abonglahor, Theo Walcott, James Milner, Mark Noble and Steven Taylor.

 

Most of the above players have performed very well for the England U21's who currently are out performing the senior side so Capello may have to stop picking the big names and choose the best players to fit the team.

 

The Italian said he just believed the main reason for the disappointing performance was the players were not yet at their physical peak, this despite them all having a full pre-season programme.

 

The game being only a friendly with Joe Cole's late scrambled goal grabbing a draw gives Capello an opportunity to look back on what went wrong and how to fix it ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.