It is all very well complaining about the players the manager picked after the fact but most of the time his selections are fairly popular. It's not like England have a group of world class players not being picked. Complaining about picking the likes of Jagielka, Henderson or even Glen Johnson is pointless if in reality those are the best players England have in those positions.
It would be like me complaining about the Socceroo manager picking McGowan, Wilkinson and Davidson for the Australian defence.
That's debatable, LL. Surely you aren't suggesting Australia and England have an equal dearth of options? Players who could have been included in the team, as far as I'm aware: Ashley Cole, Shawcross, Shaw, Richards, Bertrand, Delph, Albrighton, Barry, Carrick, Phil Jones...Hodgson showed some balls picking Sterling, but why did he sub him off when he was the best midfield player for England on the day? When he's not totally baffling, he's tactically inflexible. But I'm not even sure it was clear what kind of formation they were actually playing yesterday, they seemed to be all over the place. Playing Sturridge and Rooney together upfront would have put more pressure on their back four...Baines and Johnson were given the chance to make runs, but too often Rooney was completely marked out of the game and unable to get free to latch onto any crosses those wing backs might have put in.
There's also the mentality question. Could another manager have prepared them better mentally?