What we learned from England’s performance against Holland:

It was the start of the post Fabio Capello era and expectations were surprisingly low for the current England side. Stuart Pearce was in caretaker charge and it was a chance to show supporters nationwide of his managerial credentials although he had ruled himself out of the running for the position long-term before the match, as the speculation rose about Harry Redknapp being named as the new manager. England lost the game 3-2 due to a late winner from Dutch winger Arjen Robben but the result, in my eyes, was irrelevant. The performance was decent and the comeback showed bags of spirit from such a young side; but did we learn anything?

For a start, our defending on certainly two of the goals was poor. The first came from an inspiring run by Robben in his own half. You cannot give a player of Robben’s calibre a reasonable amount of space and, unfortunately, England did that. However, it was the in-form Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s clever run who provided the space for Robben to fire home an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner. The run dragged both the centre backs away from the dangerman which was very naive of Cahill and Smalling. Either of them should have stayed with Robben and denied him the space to get a shot away.

The second goal came straight after the first and would have knocked the stuffing out of England. Kuyt found an inch of space of the right flank and delivered an inviting cross for Huntelaar to head home, despite Smalling and Hart’s best efforts. These were schoolboy errors from the Three Lions. Allowing space for world class players and not marking tight enough are fundamental errors that need to be corrected. However, the average age of the side was just 26 so the players will surely learn from these mistakes and, hopefully, the lapses will be eradicated from the side before Euro 2012.

The spirit and determination the players showed to get back in the match cannot be faulted however. After Daniel Sturridge’s shocking miss many thought it wasn’t going to be England’s day. But their persistence and never-say-die attitude saw England finally hit the back of the net with two well-taken goals. The first was from Gary Cahill – a centre-half by trade, but he showed great composure and skill to finish, like a centre forward, superbly under the body of Maarten Stekelenburg. The goal was clearly offside but it was England’s reward for their hard efforts in breaking a stern Holland defence.

The second came in stoppage time. The ball fell to Phil Jones on the edge of the area who slotted a sublime pass through to his Manchester United counterpart Ashley Young who finished coolly. It was one of the only creative parts of the game from England’s point of view which was where i felt the team lacked last night. Their play up to the final third was good but England required movement from their front men and they craved that killer pass that would open up the Holland defence. Their lack of creativity was punished soon after when Arjen Robben’s deflected effort found the net with virtually the last kick of the game and questions were again being asked of the England defence.

So, after all that, what have we learnt? If you ask me, I think the performance brought lots of plus points. Danny Welbeck looked very sharp, as well as Daniel Sturridge who was voted man of the match. England showed lots of commitment, desire and team spirit to come together and finish in the way they did but were undone at the end by another slice of poor defending. Schoolboy errors seemed to occur frequently so the next England manager needs to make sure the young players remove this from their game and ensure that they focus for the full 90 minutes. Other than that, it was a good display and England did well against a very good Holland side.

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