Perennial underachivers England lived up to their tournament reputation last night by, well err, underachieveing. In a match that many expected England to easily win, Algeria constantly pressed England, looked more comfortable with the ball and the game ended in a 0-0 draw.

I’ve read lot of reports that suggest it’s England’s worst performance in a long time, but anyone that saw them play against Platinum Allstars recently might not necessarily agree. It’s hard to pick out a single player that had an average game let alone played well. Lampard was non existant, Gerrard did nothing, Heskey was pressured into mistakes and perhaps the worst culprit of all Wayne Rooney, looked nothing like Wayne Rooney. He struggled to control the ball, looked a little short on pace and was worryingly outmuscled on a number of occasions.

So what was the problem? This was supposed to be the game where Gareth Barry brought stability as Capello fielded the closest possible team to the one he’d used in England’s qualifiers. The truth is, I don’t think anyone knows, had you asked most fans and pundits before the game they would (and did) predict an easy victory for England. Capello himself in his post match interview didn’t seem to have the answers.

Much has been made of Capello’s disciplinarian approach and the pressure on the players since they landed in South Africa, but are we just looking for excuses? Does Alex Ferguson joke around with his players at Manchester United? In fact, at Old Trafford I’d argue that there’s more pressure on the players to achieve and it seems to work in their favour rather than against them.

On Wednesday, England take on group leaders Slovenia and need a win to make the second round. The bookies seem confident, but I have to admit that at 6/1 I fancy Slovenia to get a result.

Expect changes to the England team…