WHAT a shambles.

And while, like the rest of the nation, I was stunned by yesterday's defeat in Bloemfontein, I must admit I was not altogether surprised because, in my view, it had been coming for months.

Or, to be more precise, since Wednesday March 3.

That was the night we played Egypt at Wembley in the final friendly before Fabio Capello named his provisional World Cup squad.

It was also the night I first began to have serious concerns about the Italian's tactics.

We beat the Egyptians 3-1 but it was a far from convincing performance, particularly in the first half when a team who had failed to qualify for South Africa gave us the runaround on Wembley's wide open spaces.

Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry were overrun in midfield. And as they chased shadows, our central defensive pairing of John Terry and Matthew Upson were left woefully exposed.

That sounds familiar doesn't it?

The writing was on the wall and remained so throughout our unimpressive build-up to the finals.

It was the same story as we struggled to overcome Mexico and Japan in our final two warm-up friendlies.

And then when we opened the tournament with draws against the USA and Algeria.

The victory over Slovenia - the smallest footballing country at the finals - masked Capello's tactical flaws.

But they were there for all to see yesterday as our World Cup dream was ripped to shreds by a German side who probably cannot believe their luck at facing an England team left wide open by their aged formation and naive gameplan.

Many will blame our defenders, especially Upson and Terry, for our heaviest ever defeat at a finals.

But the truth is they were fed to the wolves by their coach's tactics and the long-time imbalance of our midfield, which finally tipped us over the edge.

Playing 4-4-2 was a mistake against the Germans. As it was against Egypt, Mexico, USA and Algeria...

It presented Joachim Low's men with too much room, which they exploited to devastating effect. And nobody had more freedom inside the Free State Stadium than Mesut Ozil.

Our rigid formation meant the German playmaker went undetected in the hole as neither our defenders or midfielders appeared to know whether it was their responsibility to pick him up.

For most of the game nobody did, and with Thomas Muller and Lukas Podolski keeping our full-backs Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole penned in as they took up wide positions either side of striker Miroslav Klose, we were on the back foot almost from the start.

Capello should have recognised this and at the very least changed formation, if not personnel.

In all football, but especially on the international stage, if you cannot outplay your opponents' midfield then you must at least outnumber them.

Introducing Joe Cole for Jermain Defoe to play on the left of midfield, could have released Steven Gerrard into his preferred and - many would say - most effective position behind lone striker Wayne Rooney, who thrived in this 4-5-1 cum 4-4-1-1 formation at Manchester United last season.

This would have swelled our midfield presence and with sub Cole and James Milner on either flank we would have had two wide men who could have tucked in and tracked back when we were defending and advanced when we attacked.

They could have provided some much-needed support and cover for central midfielders Barry and Lampard, who were often guilty of breaking forward together leaving us exposed at the back.

In fact, I cannot remember the last time I saw an England defence left so hung out to dry by the men in front of them.

At one stage, I thought there was a decent case for bringing on Ledley King as a midfield anchor who could have also slipped back to give us a central defensive trio that would have allowed full-backs Johnson and Cole to pursue their attacking ambitions.

Those doubting Gerrard's switch to a more advanced central position only had to witness how well the outstanding Ozil played.

It allowed him to find the kind of space and make the kind of impact the England skipper would have revelled in, but could sadly only dream about.

We had no answer to Germany's movement when they attacked and that is because their tactics and formation were so superior.

Such was their first-half dominance, we could not have complained had we gone in at half-time 4-0 or even 5-0 down.

As it was we went in 2-1 behind and felt rightly aggrieved not to be level after Lampard's blatant goal was not seen nor given by the officials.

I have been campaigning for 30 years for the introduction of goal-line technology.

We have seen a rise in the number of incidents in the Premier League in the last few seasons. And following an initial outcry after each case, we seem to sweep it under the carpet until the next incident. And so on, and so on.

But after yesterday's travesty at their showpiece event, the time has surely come for FIFA to take notice. After all, we are talking about the World Cup here, the greatest football tournament and one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

It is not amateur night down the social club!

But while those in charge of the beautiful game fail to use the technology at their disposal then football, even the World Cup, will always have a slightly amateurish feel about it.

A bit like England's tactics yesterday.

Courtesy SUN of London