England 2-2 Czech Rep

His name is Fabio Capello and he is charged by Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp with the crime of "killing" Liverpool's Steven Gerrard by shunting him out onto the left wing.

It was an accusation that the Italian boss laughed off, much in way that his predecessor Steve McClaren mistakenly believed that he could smile away any criticisms of his management.

We all know what happened to him of course, but Capello took another novel approach to deflecting criticism - he simply claimed that what England fans and Redknapp thought that they had seen was a mere illusion.

"You have to explain something to Mr Redknapp," he said. "Because he (Gerrard) didn't play left. The movement went to the left, but he was in the middle. We played 4-3-2-1. Not left, sorry."

It was a dubious riposte, given that Gerrard did, indeed, spend the overwhelming majority of his 57 minutes on the pitch on the left side, while Lampard and Barry occupied the middle.

But, tactical definitions aside, this was a terrible England performance - comfortably the worst of Capello's reign, and the Czechs were only denied victory at the death by the scrappiest of equalisers from substitute Joe Cole.

Redknapp obviously has an axe to grind, as it was he who had so hoped to replace Steve McClaren until a police investigation into corruption in football cast him in a bad light.

Yet the straight-talking Londoner, using his platform as a television pundit, perfectly summed up England's current predicament.

"We keep chopping and changing managers, but we don't improve," he said.

Indeed. England have no divine right to dispatch teams at will, but this was a Czech team that peaked at Euro 2004 and is now shorn of the talents of Jan Koller, Pavel Nedved and Tomas Rosicky.

Still, they comprehensively outplayed their hosts with a sprightly performance, with forward Jan Polak and Marek Jankulovski particularly effervescent.

After several sights of goal, Milan Baros gave the visitors a deserved lead on 22 minutes.

Radek Sirl made a strong run down the left wing and easily sidestepped Wes Brown who stormed at him like a bull that had just been shown red. He crossed to Baros, who with his back to goal, turned John Terry, who, not learning from his team-mate's error barely two seconds earlier, was far too close to his man.

A decent effort seemed destined to be saved by David James until Ashley Cole stuck out a leg and deflected the ball in.

England's touch and composure was consistently second best, but they did fashion openings.

Jermain Defoe shot straight at Petr Cech on 27 minutes after being smartly set up by Wayne Rooney.

Yet the warning signs were still there. Polak drove wide from the edge of the area and England were caught in a tricky three-on-three situation following a corner.

England lacked the skill and the guile to counteract the Czech's attacking forays, especially with their most technically gifted player in Joe Cole left on the bench.

In his absence, it was left to a staple of the McClaren and Eriksson eras to bring England parity. Just before half-time, David Beckham floated in a corner and Wes Brown leapt highest to head home.

That goal, just as with Joe Cole's injury time equaliser, simply papered over the cracks of England's performance.

Gerrard continued to labour on the left and his brightest moments came when he cut inside, with a drive from the edge of the box that brought a sharp save from the Cech his best moment.

It has been a summer of tedious football sagas, but, by playing Gerrard on the left, Capello has reprised the most tiresome of debates - how to accommodate both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the England team?

It is a headscratcher that befuddled Eriksson and McClaren. Now, sadly, it seems that Capello has mimicked their approach by trying to crowbar the duo into the starting line-up rather than showing sacrifice.

England's opener aside, Beckham struggled with his set-piece deliveries all night and offered little else. He was shown how to strike a dead ball on 48 minutes when full-back Jankulovski bent an absolute peach of a free-kick around the England wall and into the top left-hand corner.

The Czech fans bounced up and down with joy as Capello's men toiled for the rest of the half.

Every England attack had to be tempered with the threat of a Czech counter. This threat was nearly realised in embarrassing circumstances midway through the second-half when England stopped playing, believing that the linesman's flag would be raised, only for the clearly onside Vaclav Sverkos to run clear, round James, but fire wide.

By the end, England were so poor that the home fans didn't even bother to register their disgust. Instead, they joined in with a Mexican wave instigated by the buoyant Czech supporters.

The news that FA chief executive Brian Barwick is to exit his post at the end of the year is also likely to be met with gross indifference. As Redknapp said, the people change, but the performances stay the same.

This kind of rampant cynicism has long been tied with following England, but it took over completely towards the back end of McClaren's reign.

On Wednesday night, England might have been rubbish, Barwick may have departed the FA and arguably the weakest Czech team of the last 12 years should have come to Wembley and won with ease had Joe Cole not bundled in shot through a melee of players.

But England fans no longer seem to care. They no longer seem to believe that England can be a significant force in world football. And that is a very sad development indeed.