excellent David Pleat article in Guardian online

I presume Pleat  means England lost the art of creating space. Does he suggest when an England team last had it?

Creating space in a football game seems such a multi-layered thing. Brazil created space last night in part by blocking space so well defensively. They drew Chile on and sucked them in and then exploited the gaps left defensively by their opponents. They also created space with some very direct runs from deep midfield that punctured the Chilean lines; as well as creating space with some creative short passing through midfield and some excellent running by supporting players off the ball.

Long time since England had a player who could carry the ball from deep midfield at pace to punch through the opponents lines; long time since the side had a really creative midfield player who could beat a player or two and see a telling pass at the end of it to open up space for others(Gazza was perhaps the last one). A lack of clever movement off the ball in the team also often means that space closes around the England player in possession rather than opening around him - they end up getting blocked off or running into a cul de sac for lack of good movement by team mates around them. And England haven't currently got a Platt or a Peters who were ghost-like at times in the way they would suddenly appear in space with a clever run or brilliant positioning and reading of the game.

One of the main justifications for having Heskey in the side was that he was pretty good at making diagonal runs across defensive lines in a way that opened up space for Rooney to get runs on goal. Hardly saw any evidence of that in the games Heskey played at the World Cup this time.

As a team, England didn't hold shape well enough to take advantage of spaces that open up when opponents attacking moves break down. Far too  often England players became isolated because of the lack of coordination in the movement between and across the lines of the team. You just didn't see that with Brazil last night. They were like a well oiled machine. They played with a discipline and a method that would match the very best of German sides from the past, but there was some of the Brazilian flare of old added into the mix too.

There are some excuses for the England side, but nothing surely that would justify the yawning gap between how good an understanding of how to play a team game the Brazilians showed last night, and how poorly the England side performed in their four games in terms of working together as a unit on the pitch.

It's a good point, we must have pretty much the slowest side out there if you put them all together...

I start to wonder about Walcott, and Lennon, at least they could add that.

space is also created by quick intelligent movement off the ball. and speed does not just mean pace, but speed of thought and speed in the turnaround. this is something brazil, holland and spain excel at. you also lose space when one of your players keeps deserting his designated area. for england i suggest gerrard and rooney the worst offenders in this.

can you name any instances of speed in thought and turnaround these 3 teams have shown in this world cup,where the best you can say is they have been average and in hollands case worse than average, spain were made to look average against chilie for 30 mins ,poor against portugal in the ist half ,lost to switzerland,but dont let the facts spoil your holy than though theories

2 most disappoiting players in this world cup have been innesta and torres