England have recorded their first competitive defeat under the new management of Fabio Capello.

One thing that Capello can’t seem to overcome in the England team is their defensive mistakes and lapses in concentration.  It was not completely unexpected that England lost the game to Ukraine based on two more defensive errors.

England were dealt a heavy blow after just 14 minutes when Rio Ferdinand inexplicably let the ball run past him, not realizing Artem Milevskiy was lurking.  Rob Green went to ground and had little choice but to bring Milevskiy down, which resulted in a penalty and a red card for Green.  Aaron Lennon was sacrificed to bring on backup keeper David James. The blow could have been heavier but Shevchenko missed the penalty; hitting the post.

Down to ten man England looked seriously second best to Ukraine, allowing the Ukrainians dominate the possession.  Then came the second defensive mistake when the normally reliable Ashley Cole decided to do a little drag-back on the edge of the box and missed the ball.  The striker stole the ball away and it ran to Serhiy Nazarenko who let rip with a powerful shot; Ashley Cole finished the move off by the deflecting the shot into his own net.

In the second half England reshaped with Milner coming on for Gerrard and Rooney drop back into a wing position.  With the formation shift England played much better and looked like they could get at least an equalized, but it wasn’t to be and Ukraine were able to hold on for the win.

There were both some positives and negatives for England to take from this game; most of the negatives were defensive errors which Capello needs to somehow sort out if England are to have any chance at the World Cup.

On a positive note David James was excellent, and did not do his World Cup hopes any damage with two fantastic saves.   First he made an impressive full stretch one handed dive to deny Rakitskiy’s powerful strike.  Second he gave a lesson in how one-on-one’s should be handled when he stayed big to block Yarmolenko on the break away.

Another player worth noting is Michael Carrick; sometimes it’s so frustrating to watch him play, as you know what he’s capable of but just doesn’t seem to want to come alive.  He can pass a long ball like no one else, can unlock defenses with through balls, he’s pretty good running with the ball and can hit a good shot.  But he doesn’t seem to want to do any of those things.  The game last night was  perfect example.  He didn’t seem to want the ball at all, taking up poor positions and standing way too close to the ball carrier…almost in subconscious way of saying “don’t pass to me”.  When he was on the ball all he would play were short balls across the back line.

Barry can play short passes all day, but he can also make tackles all day, which Carrick cannot.  If Carrick has any chance of playing in the World Cup he needs to showcase his skills, not play in the manner of Barry, as Barry will win that contest every time.

England have now officially qualified for the World Cup 2010 with 2 games to spare; winning all 8 of their qualifying matches.

It was less than 2 years ago that England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, losing to Croatia in the rain at Wembley with Steve McClaren famously standing with an umbrella at the sidelines.  That is now a distant memory and all the bitterness is now firmly with the Croatian side.

All week prior to the match Slaven Bilic had been talking up his strategy and how he could see the holes in England that he could exploit and even saying England had “lost their Englishness” under Fabio Capello.  The England camp kept quiet and refused to be drawn in to a war of words with the Croatian manager, and instead did their talking on the pitch.

I have to say I was quick to write off Glen Johnson in the friendly against Slovenia as he defended pretty poorly in that match; but last night he looked like a different player.  He got forward well in the same manner as normal but his defensive work was also very good.  He probably put in the best defensive performance of the team, and his header to deny Eduardo was fantastic.  Down the right side Lennon and Johnson rampaged past the Croatian defenders all night.

England did look a bit narrow on the left side without a left sided winger, but when Gerrard and Lampard bang in 2 goals a piece it’s difficult to see sacrificing one of them to bring in a winger.

My major concern about England is their overall defense at the moment.  After going 4-0 up they were not able to shut up shop and keep a clean sheet.  The goal was very sloppy and surely should have been stopped.  John Terry has not looked like his former self lately, and hopefully it’s just a form issue that he will have worked through by the time South Africa rolls around.

During Fabio Capello’s reign as England manager things have certainly turned around for the team; coming off failure to qualify for Euro 2008 they have managed to win all 7 of their world cup qualifiers.  The way they have won these match has also been convincing with good football and being able to open up teams with ease.

Having said this I feel the last 2 matches, last night against Slovenia and a few weeks ago against Holland, have been big steps backwards.  Normally England’s defense is one of their strongest attributes, but recently the defense has looked awful.

Glen Johnson does give you a good option going forward but last night his defending was terrible, there seemed to be a player getting in behind him every 5 minutes.  John Terry would have to come across to cover for Johnson leaving big holes in the middle.  I would just as soon see Wes Brown take the field against Croatia and do a better defense job and sacrifice some of the wing play.

Terry also looked way off the pace, I lost count of how many times the Slovenian forwards ran off the back of him and he was never going to catch them.  Maybe he is carrying an injury…but if it’s so severe that he can’t even keep up, why is he playing?

Robert Green’s first touch was when he picked up the ball outside of the box, which in competitive play could well have seen him taking any early shower, seeing as there was a Slovenian striker is hot pursuit.  But given it was a friendly the officials seemed to turn a blind eye.  After this incident Green had a solid game.

In the midfield Gerrard has not been on form for Liverpool and he did not look in form on the night either.  Barry and Lampard had solid performances, controlling the midfield well and making tidy passes.  I have never been a big fan of Shaun Wright-Philips, he’s got quick feet but never really seems to have much of an impact on the game, as was the case again.  Milner came on but did not look nearly as dangerous or lively as he did in the previous game against the Netherlands.

Michael Carrick came on for the second half and for his standards had a shocker.  Almost all his passes went astray and he started off calling for the ball and making himself available, but after 15 minutes he seemed to want to hide.

Going forward Heskey was an effective target man winning almost everything in the air and Rooney was busy as ever and probably should have scored on a couple of occasions.  Defoe came on an scored yet again, he has surely secured his spot on the England squad with all these goals.

I have to say that I’m not sure England deserved to win, the first half penalty given for a foul on Rooney was a terrible decision, but Slovenia were unable to capitalize on all of England’s defensive errors.