Strangely enough, there’s probably a lesson for the Saddlers in last night’s superb England performance.

One of the things that Fabio Capello seems to have brought to the team is that he is prepared to pick a team, rather than the seemingly eleven best players. The interesting thing is, of course, that the team he picked that did such an excellent job on the Croats mirrors the tactics that Mullen wants to use with the Saddlers.

“What?” I hear you ask.

Look at it logically. The pivot of England’s attacks last night was the recalled Emile Heskey, who, quite frankly, was magnificent. What was Heskey doing? Running unselfishly off the ball and holding up play, so others could join. He didn’t score, but he didn’t have to. Now, doesn’t that remind you of the style of Jabo?

Playing just off Heskey was Rooney, who, second half especially, exploited the space between the Croatian midfield and their defence and looked every inch a world class player. Michael Ricketts, of course, plays that same role for us and can be devastating at third tier level.

So why have we struggled so far in some games this season? Well, we are making stupid defensive mistakes, something which Brown, Ferdinand, Terry and Cole never looked like doing, so that has to be addressed, but I think our problems also lie in midfield.

Capello played, in the absence of Gerrard, with one attacking midfielder (Lampard) and one defensive (Barry). They did compliment each other well. It is obvious now, surely, that the Gerrard/Lampard combination doesn’t work and that we need to play one or the other, partnered by Barry or Hargreaves. Capello is fortunate that any combination of one of the attacking players and one of the defensive players will work.

On top of that, Capello went for two out and out wide men, in Walcott and Cole (to the extent of playing Jenas wide left when Cole went off), who, along with Lampard were breaking forward, not just to join the strikers, but also to get in front of them as well and be prepared to go outside or inside the defenders, as the circumstances dictated.

What do we have? At the moment, two defensive central midfielders, who seem to get nose bleeds if they get near the opposition area, a striker playing wide right, who just can’t cut the mustard in that position, and a right footed player on the left who can’t go down the outside, so cuts back to give the defence time to re-adjust every time.

We have desperately needed cover at the back from day one this season and that has surely to be addressed, but we have also been lacking down the flanks. Mullen surely has to try Reich on the right and either Demontagnac or Zaaboub on the left and, if that doesn’t work, he should be looking to bring in a “proper” right winger.

Come on, Jimmy, you can learn a lesson from a foreign manager here.