England's reliance on Gascoigne exposed

THE cry of "what a load of rubbish" was conspicuous by its absence on Saturday, but the traditional Wembley chant of derision has greeted better displays than this.

Then again, this was different in many ways from your normal Wembley occasion. In fact, going through London's suburbs, much of England seemed immune from it all. "Who's playing today?" inquired my English taxi driver. Honestly.

Two hours before kick off, there was none of the loud tribalism which accompanied the League Cup and FA Cup finals. At least this made for a far friendlier atmosphere. Praise be, respectful silence greeted the Swiss anthem, while for much of the encounter and long after it the cowbell ringing Swiss supporters out sang the strangely somnolent English crowd. Must have been spivs and sponsors.

Perhaps, after all the hype, it didn't take long for some reality to dawn once the football started. Saturday was wake up time. As Terry Venables put it afterwards: "This isn't fantasy football. We're not going to win every game by three or four goals." Worse, it probably needed to be said.

This was bound to be the case in some instances, for even year old qualification form isn't much of a barometer. But two and a half year friendly form is even less conclusive.

The nearer the championship came, the more bloated and self deluding were England's expectations. A nostalgic regurgitation of 1966, as if somehow football coming home, a Labour revival (9) Oasis assuming the Beatles' mantle and a repeat of the route 66 four group, 16 team format meant destiny would be on England's side exactly three decades later.

First though, they required a football team and the lurking suspicion that Terry Venables' fledgling side simply aren't up to it was given credence by events here.

For starters, they are, as predicted, too heavily dependent on Paul Gascoigne for inspiration. One of the main benefits of seeing the broader picture which television sadly cannot convey is the opportunity to focus on one player.

My hunch is that Gascoigne was too wound up for his own good. He berated Gary Neville for a delayed cross on one occasion in the first half, then admonished himself as his fading stamina contributed to misplaced passes. And there's the rub. Another hunch is that Gazza won't finish one match in these finals. Three times when he received the ball in the second half, he just stopped dead.

Maybe he'll get the volatile mixture of emotional energy right next week. Maybe he can't anymore. It's hard not to feel sorry for Gazza. After two serious leg injuries and countless other on and off field mishaps which would broken the will of lesser spirits, he appears not to have the residual speed and stamina with which he can turn on the tap and revive his vintage performances of Italia 90.

Alan Hansen picked out two examples of Gascoigne's forward momentum in the first half. Yet on the first occasion he crossed first time, when in the past he might well have run in on goal himself. On the second he couldn't quite get there ahead of two Swiss defenders.

At 29 (for some reason we all know his age now) Daft As A Brush has adapted and modified his contribution. For much of the first half, he lay Jeep, largely orchestrated matters and started movements with precise passing or mini surges such as the one which led to Alan Shearer's 22nd minute goal.

But when he faded, England were almost comatose. Swiss folk hero and second half substitute, Stephane Chapuisat, said damningly: "It's difficult to say if we lost two points or gained one, but we discovered one thing: when Paul Gascoigne is OK, England are strong. When he is out, the team is nothing."

It's not Gazza's fault that England are almost bereft of international creativity without him, and to saddle him with England's collapse would, as Venable stated, be unfair. "I could have taken any one of eight players off," he said. True.

Switzerland were pretty much what was expected: spirited, competitive and reasonably well organised (though England will still be kicking themselves far failing to avail of some of the worst set piece defending likely to be seen in these finals).

Willing to leave three front men up front, one of them at least looked a handful, namely the strong, quick and menacing Kubilay Turkyilmaz. But for all that they were utterly reliant on Ciriaco Sforza to provide the armoury as their 4-3-1-2 system provided nothing from the flanks. Thus, when Sforza wasn't firing, which was much of the time on Saturday, the Swiss looked wingless, widthless and witless.

As Venables repeated incessantly afterwards, England faded (alarmingly in fact) and invited Switzerland on to them by lying too deep. But he was also correct in stating "I felt it was going to go to 1-0 until the penalty."

For much of the time Switzerland hit speculative balls forward to their forward lane. Eventually, a break came their way, and for all Stuart Pearce's understandable protestations, his needlessly flailing arms were still blocking Marco Grassi's flicked lob.

However, contrary to Venables' claims, Switzerland did not wilt nearly as much as England did. At the death, they were the team looking for a win which only David Seaman's alert near post save from Grassi denied them.

The surprise was that England ultimately became as witless as the Swiss along the wings. As big a surprise was that Venables plucked Steve McManaman from the wilting eight, replacing him with Steve Stone.

Apart from the goal and sporadic threats at all manner of set pieces, England enjoyed most success when attacking down Switzerland's under manned and vulnerable flanks.

With his magnetic close control, the mercurial Liverpool dribbler was a regular thorn in Switzerland's right side, and at times Sebastien Jeanneret must have hankered for his clockwork studies.

Gascoigne apart, McManaman appeared the only English player capable of doing something different, something off the cuff.

True, there was the old frustrating lack of an end product on many occasions, but this is as much because he is not an out and out left winger while, without David Platt, England do not get enough men in the opposition area.

McManaman also has pace, something England are a little short on, and as Hansen pointed out, this is compounded by the inclusion of four players recently recovered from injury, namely: Tony Adams, Gary Neville, Darren Anderton and Alan Shearer.