Big Ron Atkinson's England analysis

Former Villa and Albion boss Ron Atkinson gives his view on England's opening World Cup draw and points to where the national team go from here.

I have seen some abject England performances in my time and that wasn't one of them. So while I know the theme of this week will be a mix of criticism and panic, you won't find it here.

I still strongly subscribe to the view that England will come out of this group safely enough and most probably in top position. If we can't beat Algeria then we shouldn't play Slovenia in the final game, we should concede the match and catch the next flight home. That's how I rate our prospects.

We need to step back for a moment and remind ourselves of a few things. I can't remember the last team which won the World Cup having started off in a blaze of glory. Certainly our best performances in the tournament have come after some pretty dreadful opening games.

Those of us old enough to remember 1966 will also recall how we felt the morning after England had opened the tournament against Uruguay with a goalless draw and it was a darn sight worse than many fans were feeling on Sunday morning.

The 1990 opener against the Republic of Ireland was also pretty wretched but we reached the semi-finals. In 1986, didn't we have a dreadful start losing 1-0 to Portugal and then only drawing with the Moroccans? But we reached the quarter-finals.

Our best start was probably that 3-1 beating of France - a very good French side as well - with Bryan Robson famous early goal in 1982. But that didn't materialise into a challenge deep into the tournament did it?

So I hope no-one is panicking. We will qualify from this group. If we don't we will not deserve to be there anyway and, as I say, shouldn't stay for the last game.

We made the best chances, we were the dominant force, we didn't lose and on another day would have taken the game by a one or two-goal margin. And, as I said on Friday, that is against an American team who are no mugs, played with plenty of energy and organisation.

No, we did alright - I thought a lot of the performance was very good and took quite a lot of encouragement from the game while, at the same time, acknowledging some concerns.

The goalkeeper? You all know my thoughts on that. I have been a Joe Hart man from the moment he was selected.

But if the manager has decided that Robert Green is his man out of the three then I don't believe he has a choice. He must stick with him. The only way he has got some 'wiggle room' is if Capello has turned to Green because he was not convinced about James' fitness.

Then he can turn to his most experienced keeper and declare him fit again. But I think if Green was his choice he must show faith in him and rightly so - no player should suffer a collapse in faith from a manager for one error, no matter how bad.

I remain convinced that Hart, having had the best season out of the three of them, should be starting and wonder now if a similar scenario is not developing in the centre of defence.

It looks as if we have lost Ledley King, certainly for the next game and most probably longer, and while I have been a big supporter of Jamie Carragher - a very dogged and determined defender down the years - he was not that convincing alongside John Terry after coming on at half-time.

I think Capello will stick with him but again I must point out that in Michael Dawson, he has the most in-form defender of the clutch out there.

Of course, there's nothing like an unconvincing first performance to trigger questions about the selections so, with King bringing to the tournament well-documented injury problems and Carragher persuaded back from retirement, there will be plenty of folk being smart after the event.

But I'm not sure that Capello had too many other options. I simply don't see many players out there who the rest of the nation wouldn't have picked.

The lad I would not have played, Aaron Lennon, did well enough and I thought Steven Gerrard was probably the outstanding player on the pitch but Frank Lampard suffered a very subdued game.

He got a couple of shots away from outside the box, which we would expect, but nothing that carried any conviction.

I'm not sure about Shaun Wright-Phillips in a wide left role. There's not enough end product in his game for my liking and when you are constantly coming back in on to your right side, defenders soon work you out. That didn't work for me.

There are suggestions Wayne Rooney is suffering too but I don't know whether he delivered a poor performance or just had one of those games where nothing came right for him.

But his form didn't look in bad order; he was tidy enough in possession and, with his passing, I'm not worried about Rooney.

Emile Heskey's all round game was very good. He linked up well for the goal and performed that role at the top of the attack probably as well as he had done all season.

But we also saw Emile's great weakness in that chance to put England back in front. One-on-one with the goalkeeper, you just knew he wasn't going to score. I think Emile felt the same. His shot was that of a man who hoped he would beat the keeper but wasn't convinced he was going to.

Nevertheless, Heskey helped England make enough opportunities to justify Capello starting him again against Algeria.

Capello will stick with his 4-4-2 but, when the better teams come along, he will need to shift to a system which produces a little extra cover in midfield and means Rooney operating as a lone striker.

The one thing I don't want to see is Gerrard going back out to the left, because I think you are taking away more than you are gaining.

I know Gerrard contributes from that position but we are losing what he brings to the team driving forward from central areas and linking up with Rooney, which the pair do so well.