Frank Gregan / 03 March 2010 Free Bet View Market

I know a guy who used to manage Bristol City. We were sat in his office having a chat which revolved around an incident that had happened earlier in the day. On his way to work he was accosted by a supporter as he parked his car at the training ground and copped an earful of abuse courtesy of the club's latest defeat. The manager said to the supporter "what do you do for a living?" He was a bricklayer, the manager then pointed out that he wouldn't tell the supporter how to build a wall so he would be grateful if he would leave football management to the professionals.

The supporter missed his chance of a quick barb, something along the lines of "if I built walls like you build football teams I wouldn't be able to get public liability insurance!" But close quarter confrontation with a supporter leaves its mark. It's not the same as a mass boo as you leave the pitch, it was up close and personal and it had hurt. "Why is it that everyone's a football manager in this country?" was his rhetoric question.

It's a question I've often asked myself so this announcement goes right against the grain, it's one of those ridiculous statements you hear in the pub and laugh off but let's get it out there and consider its validity. "I could manage England!" That sounds a tad vain so I'm going to qualify it. My Missus could manage England, heck even Noel Edmonds could manage England!

Let's assume that all the players are fit. Get yourself, Fabio Capello, your missus and the TV celebrity that makes you cringe the most into a room and have them write down their starting eleven for the game against the USA on 12th June. Once the thorny issue of the 'keeper has been resolved, there is unlikely to be too much of a difference of opinion.

The team picks itself. Okay, so there's a problem with both full-backs at the moment with the left back berth being a right pain in the seating area! Pick up any newspaper and the candidates are listed for you. It's not like it's rocket science, there aren't eighty billion formulas, it's a case of pick your third favourite left back and crack on!

You might choose to think differently and pick a player to play out of position or occupy a wing back slot. Ah, but now you're thinking which could lead to you changing the formation and as a nation, we've stopped doing that. It's a production line national side, 4-4-2 is fixed in a large tablet of stone outside Soho Square!

The time has come to shape the formation around the players rather than shaping the players to fit the formation. 3-5-2 is no longer trendy, but who cares? James Milner and Stewart Downing are just two of the talented wing backs we could call upon and with three centre backs behind them England should be able to get on the front foot. That would enable Steven Gerrard to return to the centre of midfield and get another square peg back into his preferred position.

Amazingly, with all their woes England remain third favourites to prevail in the summer at [6.8] to back. They are [2.64] to reach the semi-finals which is a much more reasonable target because somewhere along the line a team is going to have to be picked to beat the best in the world and that team needs to have a formation considered the most likely to win the game, not a default setting.

3-5-2, 4-5-1 and the Christmas tree are alternatives to consider because there will be occasions when a different formation is needed, this is not a 'one size fits all' situation. Fabio Capello is doing a superb job, John Terry and the injuries are testing his metal, let's hope his metal is flexible enough to allow a system change when needed. Otherwise we may as well have Ant and Dec picking the team!