What was the killer blow for England in the Group of Death?

With possibly every Englishman on the planet feeling like they need something to blame for England's worst ever World Cup in over 50 years, which could get worse by the time Costa Rica are done with us, it has left most likely all of us wanting to find something to blame.

There would be no other place to begin writing about a disappointing World Cup other than Wayne Rooney. Seemingly the most popular scapegoat for England fans. Although what has gone unnoticed among many of us is that Rooney wasn't the only star player who under performed at this World Cup. The 'ever-reliable' Steven Gerrard and 'shot-stopper' Joe Hart were top of the list of let downs during our short stint in the World Cup for me this time. These 3 players are part of what could have been England's greatest spine on the pitch but it crumbled like a statue made of sand almost instantly. To be fair to the players they have had some absolutely terrific games in England shirts even as recently as the World Cup qualifiers but the occasion seemed to have gotten to them as Gerrard was almost invisible for both games, Rooney missed chances that seemed impossible to miss and Hart didn't seem to stop much going past him at all. However, how can 180 minutes of football be dependant on just 3 players, it simply can't be.

If you have spoken to anybody about the reason we are out of the World Cup it is almost certain that somebody will have said 'We should have taken Ashley Cole/John Terry'. Prior to the World Cup I thought Roy Hodgson's decision to leave Cole out of the squad was a brave, yet correct decision. After seeing the poor defensive displays in both games I knew both me and Hodgson were wrong. Many England fans were shocked that Baines would be the starting left back without experience against such a tricky group in the World Cup and that inexperience definitely showed as we leaked 4 sloppy goals which put us out of the World Cup at the first hurdle. Obviously they weren't all Baines' fault but some strange decisions were made by the defence which led to the goals that were conceded in both games. Moving along to John Terry. Terry's decision to not come out of retirement for a world cup baffled me. What was worse was that we now seemed like we were one centre back short and he is a massive figure to be missing when you need him. His passion is unquestionable, he is one of England's best centre backs of recent times and maybe if he was playing he could have commanded the back line much better but it was simply not meant to be for Terry as we all know he chose to stay in retirement. It is impossible to say that with Cole and Terry playing we would have stopped any of the goals going in as our defending was nothing short of embarrassing against Germany in 2010 and they were both playing. Yet inevitably, it is another one of those moments when you wonder what might have been.

The easiest excuse by a long shot though would be to blame the young age of our squad. Personally I felt that the young players were our stars of this World Cup and hopefully they continue to improve over their careers. The blame on the young players is most likely due to the amount of young players within the squad which made this England team the youngest it has been in a long time, although the average age was only 26. Compare this to the almost equal average age of the 1966 winning team which was 27 and it seems like it is a very weak reason that England are out of this World Cup. What I do think was a strange decision was to bring players like Luke Shaw who lacked experience whereas Ashley Cole would have seemed more likely to have the ability, and confidence, to step up to the task if we needed a switch in defence, which it really seemed like we did. A hint of over-confidence may have been a hindrance for the youth as some players did seem to try to hard to take on players instead of playing a simple pass which knocked any momentum out of fight backs against the Uruguayans and the Italians. For these combined reasons it is acceptable that some people can blame the young players, but I personally believe that is an easy was out.

Finally if you are feeling particularly patriotic and think that we did nothing wrong but still need something to blame, it's simple. Blame Balotelli. He scored the winning goal against us which led to the defeat against Italy, then taunted us by requesting for a kiss off our queen and to add to it he squandered a glorious chance to put Italy 1-0 up against the Costa Ricans, which might have kept us fighting for another 4 days at least. That seems the easiest option to blame anyway, so let's just hope he stays out of our way at the Euros in France 2016.