This hurts me to say, but at the moment the England national team is light years away from the quality of teams such as Spain and Germany.

None of the three nations won their midweek World Cup qualifiers though.

Off

Spain conceded an injury-time equaliser to draw 1-1 with France in Madrid on Tuesday night. Germany incredibly blew a four goal lead to draw 4-4 with Sweden in Berlin.

England drew 1-1 in Poland. All three were expected to claim victory, but the least surprising result of the night was England’s draw in Poland.

Spain and Germany had off-nights, but you can guarantee that in their next games they will produce far improved performances and results.

Lacking

Even during the first 35 minutes against San Marino England looked poor and lacking ideas. The team looks stale, even though the regime is relatively new. The players seem to be stuck in a rut. A draw in Poland may not turn out to be such a bad result.

However, the performance will be a concern for England boss Roy Hodgson. The pitch may have been poor, but that’s no excuse for what looked like a simple lack of energy and creative thinking amongst the England players.

The passing of the England team was also poor. Far too many passes went astray and that gave Poland a chance to get back into the game, which in the end they took.

Qualify

I have no doubt that England will qualify. They are competing against the likes of Montenegro and Poland for that automatic qualification spot.

However, I fear that if something doesn’t change then England will produce the same old dull football and make an early exit from World Cup 2014, while Germany and Spain will probably be defying the humid conditions and challenging for the competition.

England’s performance must start to improve or the Three Lions will become the also-rans of European football.

Should England be performing better in World Cup qualifying?