Talking to England’s players and coaches over the last few weeks as a World Cup campaign that started in optimism dissolved into chaos and cluelessness, a common theme emerged: no one has the remotest idea why it is happening or what to do about it.
Players who over long careers have honed failsafe methods for mentally, physically and technically preparing themselves for matches, systems that have established them among the elite of the world game, have found those techniques suddenly useless.
