Wolves boss Mick McCarthy believes a lack of team spirit was a big part of England’s World Cup failure.

The national team returned home today after their humiliating 4-1 collapse to Germany in the second round that has triggered a media firestorm.

McCarthy knows how disruptive influences can affect the harmony in the camp, after his infamous spat with Roy Keane that saw the Republic of Ireland’s best player sent home in disgrace from the 2002 World Cup.

And the Molineux chief is convinced the England team did not pull together as tightly as they might have in South Africa.

He said: “We can all speculate about what went on inside the England camp, but it’s clear they haven’t been as good as the sum of their parts.

“Something isn’t right in the camp. The collective has not worked.I’ve had trouble at a World Cup and I know you have to overcome adversity as a group.

“The build-up to England’s campaign was disrupted, by some issues that should have had no bearing on football. There was the captaincy problem earlier in the year.

“Capello then gave the armband to Rio Ferdinand, but lost him to injury on the eve of the tournament. On the pitch there were selection issues and the goalkeeper’s mistake in the first game against the USA.

“So many things went wrong and I don’t know if the group could cope.

“All these things can eat away at you if team spirit isn’t as strong as it should be.”

But McCarthy refused to join the calls for the head of coach Fabio Capello, who went in to the tournament with the best qualifying record of any England manager and results second only to five-times winners Brazil.

But the Wolves boss believes Capello failed to devise the most suitable way of playing to get the best out of the so-called golden generation.

He said: “I still think Capello is a terrific manager, but even someone of his experience encounters new problems in a tournament like this.

“I’m not going to indulge in knee-jerk criticism but while you may not always have the best players on the pitch, you have to devise the best system for the players available and put the right partnerships in place throughout the team.

“That did not happen with England. At international level you usually have your players together for a few days and may not see them all again for another two or three months.

“But a World Cup brings everyone together in a pressurised environment for at least six weeks.

“I met a German couple in Port Elizabeth, before their game against Serbia, and we got talking about why Germany are a tournament team.

“They were worried about their prospects but what Germany do have, they said, is an ability to put any differences aside and get along with each other for six or seven weeks.

“It’s simple, but it’s undoubtedly true.”

McCarthy had fancied England’s chances going into the tournament.

He said: “I was optimistic for England heading into this World Cup for three reasons – their performance in the qualifying campaign, a good squad of players and a great manager in Capello.

“But you don’t have to be a player or manager to see it didn’t work for him or his players in South Africa. The question is why?

“I wanted England to win the World Cup because of the impact it would have on English football and the country, but they were so disappointing. Now we have to deal with the reverse.

“The England squad isn’t suddenly littered with bad players and their manager hasn’t fallen from the top drawer to bottom of the pile in a few weeks.

“We all know Capello is a good manager, but now we must wait to see whether the Football Association has confidence in him.”

McCarthy also dismissed the theory that England’s players were too tired after a long season.

He said: “I’m not convinced by the argument the Premier League takes too much out of England players before a major tournament.

“Javier Mascherano and quite a few other overseas players based here aren’t doing badly. The Republic of Ireland were praised for their fitness levels after we equalised in the 93rd minute against Germany in 2002, and some of these players had just been involved in relegation battles with their clubs.

“That was a tough preparation. These are all fit guys. This is a World Cup. You can’t do anything about the demands of a Premier League season and you can’t start complaining about it when things go wrong.

“You’ve got to develop the mentality of ‘this is the World Cup’ and forget everything else. I think the problem isn’t tiredness but, looking at Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres, coming back from injury.

“It’s hard to get up to speed again when you have been sidelined for a significant spell.”

McCarthy also repeated his call for the introduction of goal-line technology, after Frank Lampard’s wrongly disallowed goal against Germany.

The Wolves boss said: “I’ve called for its introduction for a long time. Scoring a goal is the hardest thing to do in football.

“We practise every day, we spend millions on signing players who can do it, millions more in wages, and for all that investment in both time and money the least we should expect is for a goal to stand if one is scored.

“We have to get this right. Lampard’s goal and Carlos Tevez’s opener for Argentina against Mexico, which was clearly offside, were very disheartening.

“They have spoiled this World Cup a little bit for me.”