England full of same old problems despite draw with Brazil

England may well have left the new Maracana with a respectable, albeit undeserved, 2-2 draw, but, as the majority of England games do, this one threw up more questions than answers.

When Roy Hodgson took over for the Euro’s last summer he said that there wasn’t enough time for him to make the necessary changes he wanted so he kept the team pretty much as it was under Capello, which was fair enough, but it’s been a year now and on the evidence of last night he hasn’t changed much and England haven’t made much progress.

Aside from the 10 minute spell where England got it to 2-1 and actually looked like a half-decent side, the rest wasn’t pretty.

The passing is still far too sloppy, the players are rushing and trying to do everything too quickly, there was no control in the build up play, it was go for the killer ball straight away, and every time that happened the ball was  given away.

There was virtually no movement and no option for the player on the ball, so he’d look up and have no choice but to pass it to the side, then eventually back to the keeper, who’d have no choice but to punt it down field and give the ball away!  

With four World Cup qualifiers coming up in the autumn there is a lot of work that needs to be done if England are to make it back to Brazil next summer, starting with getting the team to string more than five passes together.