Defoe is, but he's not in Germany. Walcott? He's never even played in the Premiership. He's a gamble.
Rooney is genuine class but he's not fully fit. And I'm not sure, at the World Cup, that he's good enough to take them through. At least not yet.
When Maradonna carried Argentina through in '86 he was astonishing. He controlled the game. Rooney is brilliant in flashes but can be played out of contention. Unless the players around him play close to their potential they'll struggle. Lennon's looked good. Gerrard and Lampard look ill-positioned. Beckham still has a beautiful cross and long pass but he was never overly-gifted with pace and even that's deserting him. He needs space to fully perform and requires a dominant team around him, stretching the opposition, to provide that.
And it's mistaken to think that the problem is down to the oppostion having "11 men behind the ball." Both Paraguay and T&T had chances and Paraguay in particular pushed England back. During the second half England drew deeper and deeper against what's generally considered inferior opposition. I'm not sure they did that by choice.
If England's poor performances are down to the tactics of their inferior oppostion it doesn't bode well for when they meet a team with comparable skills with tactical nouce to boot.
At least I hope so.
