Five Things We Learnt From Englands Draw With Slovenia

Gareth Southgate took charge of the second of his four match spell as England manager. After a their two nil win against Malta, England were hoping to kick on and add another three points to their qualifying total. Unfortunately it was a lackluster performance so The CRF looks at 5 things we learnt.

1.Joe Hart is top quality on his day.
It seems that people have forgotten that Joe Hart can be a great goalkeeper. After his numerous mistakes at euro 2016 people right called for him to be dropped from the England starting line up. Following this new man on the block Pep Guardiola deemed Hart surplus to requirements and sent him out on loan to Torino, but last night he was at his very best. In the first half he was quick off his line after a shambolic back pass by Eric Dier and in the second half he was on hand to make three saves in quick succession, one was an unbelievable stop from a corner, and called into action again from another shocking back pass this time from captain for the night Jordan Henderson. With England's back line all over the place last night it was Joe Harts fantastic performance that got England a very lucky point.

2.England need to sort their defence out quickly
So many times i was left with my hands over my eyes as Englands defence tried to be far to casual on the ball. Gary Cahill has not been at the top of his game for too long and his inclusion in the starting line up still confuses many. John Stones showed great confidence with the ball at times but then had moments where he decided tried to be too clever and was caught out. The full backs Rose and Walker looked positive at times but again showed defensive frailty. Perhaps its time to give players like Michael Keane a chance, he's a no nonsense centre back and would hopefully remind the rest of his defense that you don't need to be fancy in front of your own goal. England were lucky not to be punished by Slovenia's strikers but against better opposition it could be a catastrophe.

3.Wayne Rooney isn't the only problem but leaving him out is still the right choice.
Everybody knows that Wayne Rooney is not at his best and hasn't been for some time for club and country. Everybody was quite surprised that Gareth Southgate was the man the be ruthless and leave the England captain on the bench. He must have been watching from his seat rubbing his hands thinking that the media might give him a break as the players on the pitch struggled but his introduction did nothing the lessen the criticism. One nice lay off to Jesse Lingard and curling a shot wide were not enough to stake a claim to be reinstalled to the starting line him. He didn't inspire any change when he came off the bench and looked sluggish on the ball and was unable to get the Three Lions going. Maybe its time his spot in the squad was given over to somebody else so he can concentrate on getting back to his top level domestically.

4.Andros Townsend still has what it takes
Townsend has been in slight international wilderness over the last few years. Having scored on his debut things looked like they were going from strength to strength, but injuries combined with a lack of form domestically slowed his England career down. But after coming off the bench last night he looked lively, causing the Slovenian defenders problems by constantly running at them. He nearly scored with his first involvement and put in some good crosses. Not everything paid off for him but he was a positive introduction to the game and really showed Walcott what is expected on the wing for England.

5.England seem nervous to try anything adventurous
After the shocking performances at the Euros in the summer, England seem petrified of making any mistakes. Looking at the Malta game, they should be winning games like that by 6 goals but instead they bagged the two goals and stopped being overly attacking just in case they were caught out. Last night there seemed to be another lack of adventure with the players on the pitch, and this caused them so many issues. They just seemed to lack positivity and instead of trying to beat players just passed the ball right back to Joe Hart. It seemed that they were so nervous of getting stick from the media and the fans they started to make silly mistakes like the poor back passes of Henderson and Dier. Perhaps we need to lower our expectations of them or perhaps they need to up their game and at least play with the passion the fans deserve to see.