Where's the belief?

I was at Wembley Stadium last night to witness what, on paper, was a home victory which puts Fabio Capello's England squad to within touching distance of Euro 2012. However, the conclusion I drew was that England are as far away as ever from reaching the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1996, let alone winning one for the first time since 1966.

In truth, the Three Lions were lucky to escape with all three points as Wales striker Robert Earnshaw missed a golden opportunity to equalise with 14 minutes of the game remaining and for large spells of the game Gary Speed's men were equal to the hosts. While Ashley Young's first half strike proved enough to win the game, that was the only shot on target from a team who looked nowhere near as confident as a home team, top of the qualification group and facing a team ranked 117th in the world, should do.

Individual performances were, on the whole, acceptable. There wasn't a single player who you could point out as having had a particularly awful game. The problem was that the team seemed to be stricken by an epidemic of indifference. Not one of the eleven players on the pitch seemed intent on making the difference that would have killed off the game long before Earnshaw could make the 75,000+ England fans in the crowd exhale a sigh of extreme relief.

In terms of personnel, Capello seems to have at his disposal a highly competent, competitive squad - Wayne Rooney is certainly the man to lead the line (although he could excel in a deeper role) and Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and James Milner have all the attributes to support him in the attack. Scott Parker and Gareth Barry, despite the latter's detractors, make a very good screening duo in midfield and the emergence of Chris Smalling at right-back, as well as Gary Cahill and Phil Jones as central options seem to complement an already efficient defence. The formation issues of the World Cup, where Capello stuck to a 4-4-2 system despite popular demand seem to be over. A successful 4-2-3-1 has been deployed (as in Bulgaria) , as well as a 4-3-3, and the afore-mentioned midfielders along with Frank Lampard (still an important squad member, though much more efficient in a midfield three), Jack Wilshere and Steven Gerrard seem to understand what is required of both systems.

Yet England still are nowhere near reaching the calibre of Spain, Holland or Germany. Or even France, Italy and Portugal for that matter. The missing ingredient seems to be belief. Especially at Wembley. The booing of the team, or individual players such as Lampard and Ashley Cole has been well documented in the past and this could well have nurtured an element of fear when the Three Lions turn up at home. Before Young's goal against Wales, Capello's men appeared to be very uncertain of how to push on and impose themselves on their opposition. When they failed to increase their lead early in the second half, they reverted to this unsure attitude. Barry, in the deepest midfield role seemed the only assured presence on the ball, and that was largely because the Welsh were content to sit off him and defend deep. When the visitors did launch attacks, England dealt with them, but not with complete certainty. Some more accurate finishing from Speed's team could have seen a very different result. It was the first home win at Wembley in a year, and the four intervening fixtures had all displayed this uncertainty from England.

Elsewhere last night, world champions Spain beat Liechtenstein 6-0 at home. That is to be expected, but Liechtenstein are only two places lower than the Welsh in the world rankings and England should really be racking up that kind of scoreline, and an accompanying assured performance against this sort of team if they have any aspirations of success next summer. England's players are more talented than that of many countries, as exemplified by their many successes at club level, but if they are to push on and do the country pride in Poland and Ukraine next year, they are going to have to play with the confidence to attack teams and score goals. Anaemic performances like this win over Wales, last year's draw with Montenegro, and the first half of the Switzerland draw in June will result in an early farewell from Eastern Europe and the start of a long daunting road to Brazil 2014.