THEY SAY being the manager of England is the hardest job in that country. Try driving the last bus home from one of England's lurid town centres, then make that argument.

All Fabio Capello, and his immediate predecessors, Steve McClaren and Sven-Goran Eriksson, have had to do is organise a pretty talented squad of players and let them go. It was something beyond the first two most of the time and the suspicion is Capello is on a well-beaten path to ignominy.

But first the positives. On Wednesday there was actually some pleasing football played by England against the Czech Republic, a degree of fluid movement and sharp passing that centred on Steven Gerrard. Even a doped horse could tell you that Gerrard is the man around whom England should revolve.

But yet again, there was Frank Lampard in midfield, with Gareth Barry sometimes behind him taking four-yard passes of the central defenders and giving four-yard passes back to them. My, the Czechs must have been awed.

Gerrard, meanwhile, was stationed somewhere on the left, though Capello disputed this - Why? While over on the right was Olympic ambassador David Beckham whose last telling game for England was the World Cup qualifier against Greece.

The 2002 World Cup.

McClaren had the bottle to drop Beckham but then relented and now Capello is going to have to do it. Lampard needs to go too, not because he is a poor player but because the chemistry with Gerrard is not there and arguably never has been.

David Bentley, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing, to name three, should be given a long run.

They bring pace and freshness to a squad that in the words of Gareth Southgate "looks joyless".

If they are to do more than obstruct Croatia in Zagreb in a fortnight, England and Capello have to locate some pleasure in playing for England. Otherwise Wednesday morning's headlines in The Sun: "Duds 2 Czechs 2", and "Our £5m-a-year Boss Is Clueless", will be just the starters.