England's problem is their failure to retain the ball and pass it successfully. No one capable of leading or accepting responsibility to influence the game.

Richard, Tyne & Wear,

England are not a world class team...NEVER have been... 2 semi finals in 30 years?? Hungary have an equal record to that....Becuase the Premiership is awash with Bling, this somehow makes us think England are good....

Thomas Higson, London, london

McClaren appears to be bereft of any new or orginal thinking and his coaching is based on tactics not strategy. The problem with that is tactics only work when based on a sound strategy - something England have lacked for some considerable time.

Peter Michael Beaumont, Munich, Germany

I thought the weakest part of the Russian team was their defense.
Although Rooney scored an excellent goal;the partnership with
Owen let England down.Too many balls from defense to attack were coming virtually straight back. We simple lacked a Heskey type player to hold the ball. Also to compete for the ball, in the air.
And Robinson reliability in goal is very questionable.
McClaren, It is time to say Goodbye.

A Walton, Leicester, England

A lot of good points made here, but the last paragraph is slightly inaccurate. The Premiership is the best league in the world, but it isn't all that representative of the potential strength of an England side, purely because most of the players in the top sides aren't English.

No point blaming the pitch either, because Rooney scored one great goal on it. Try the inability to keep hold of the ball against a half-decent team, and misjudgement of playing Paul Robinson when he isn't in his best form. (I am a Spurs supporter, but that's the truth).

Anand, Bristol,

While it's grossly unfair to lay blame at any one players door, the miss by Gerrard was woeful and seemed to hand the initiative back to the Russians. Having said that, England's back four coped admirably in a tough situation and the result was harsh and the consequence disasterous. Hope springs eternal but if England don't qualify the saving grace may be the removal of McClaren and some soul searching at the FA as to what went wrong.

Andy, Bristol,

Not only Mclaren, but all of the spineless decision makers in the FA who appointed him should be fired, this has been a tiresome and pathetic qualifying campain. Pay Morinho whatever he wants and win the next world cup.

Craig, Bergen, Norway

Rooney God!!!

Albert Li, Beijing, China

so much for gerrard being world class. When is he EVER going to step up?

marc garcia, kent, uk

Well, you left it late, but there was a little point made about Lampard's exclusion, nice work Martin. It would be nice to read a Samuel's article that does not contain a reference to Lampard - Lampard being left out is not the reason that we lost last night. Poor penalty decision, poorer goalkeeper, end of.

John, Telford,