Former Villa and Albion boss Ron Atkinson analyses what must change for England to turn their World Cup fortunes around in South Africa.

First things first. I thought we’d beat the United States and we didn’t. I thought we would canter past Algeria and we didn’t.

But I am keeping the faith. I think we will beat Slovenia tomorrow and reach the Round of 16. I genuinely do. Why?

For a start I think Slovenia are an ordinary side and we will finally get a performance out of this group.

If you write both the teams out on paper, there would not be one Slovenian player who would get in our team. Not one. That means they have a hell of gap to make up on the day and if we are anything like, they won’t be able to.

How much of a role the events of the last few days will have played in that only the players and manager will know.

But while I have strong reservations about the way John Terry has handled things, the overall effect can be healthy. Let’s face it, things needed stirring up and one way or another, Terry has done that.

It’s England and that means a huge press corps following them and everything becoming so magnified.

When I saw Terry’s interview, I felt he overstepped the mark, certainly in declaring that Joe Cole should be in the team – that despite the fact that I agree with him! But how does that make the players who would make way for Cole feel? Those kind of thoughts are best left out of the public domain.

Listen, I’m all for players speaking their mind and saying what they like about who they like – as long as it is kept ‘in house.’ I never had a problem with a full and frank exchange of views but sometimes it’s best done in an informal setting.

Players are often less willing to speak their mind at a formal team meeting at which everyone attends. In fact it was good to hear that a group of senior players relaxed with a beer and engaged in that type of discussion in the manager’s presence after the awful performance against Algeria.

But Terry stepped over the line by taking it all to the press and presuming he had the authority to speak for them all, when clearly that wasn’t the case. I think he was getting carried away with his role.

Nevertheless, what’s done is done and I wouldn’t dispute that if it has stirred things up then good. One or two of them needed a good shake up.

This is the climax of four years waiting, planning and hard work. For some, this is most likely their last chance to play at a World Cup.

Leaving aside the prospect of our winning the bid to stage the 2018 finals, this is the best opportunity we have of enjoying a memorable tournament for the forseeable future.

It has the feel of a last chance for many of the squad and a verbal free-for-all, with no holds barred, providing what goes on stays inside the four walls of the training camp, is healthy.

What I could never stand were those players who would be muttering away in the background de-stabilising things out of some gripe or grievance, without having the courage to come and say it to your face.

I don’t think we’ve got that and while I am not too impressed with the way Terry has gone about things, at least it’s brought a lot out into the open and got things stirred up.

For many, this moment represents the climax of their careers and they have got to make sure there are no ‘if onlys.’

They have got to leave nothing out there on the pitch tomorrow, we have a good record in these ‘all or nothing’ contests and I am backing that to hold.

But the last one I remember us failing was that infamous night against Poland back in 1974. We failed to qualify for the World Cup because we could not find a winner but we absolutely murdered the Poles that evening, battered them. It was a freak result.

The important point being that when those players reflected on the game, they knew they could have done nothing more. Thirty six years later, we’re in a similar situation and I hope that no matter how it turns out, we are all saying as England fans – “Well, at least they could not have done any more.”

I’ve sat and watched the Algerian game now in detail and what struck me most was our appalling lack of movement. We were terribly static. It doesn’t matter what formation Capello chooses tomorrow, if we don’t improve that it won’t matter.

I’ve heard some advance the reason that our players are always knackered when it comes to summer tournaments, but that’s just an excuse we hide behind.

Brazil play more football than anyone on earth. All the teams at the finals are packed with players from top European clubs who are zig-zagging the globe playing as many or even more games.

I have seen none better than Argentina yet. In fact if England are not to win it, I think it would be good for football if Argentina win it. They way they are playing is mesmerising.

The manager might be a little bit nutty and may be another of those guys for whom tactics are little white mints, but you’ve got to admit he is captivating.

He and his team are full of zest andhave lit up the tournament more than any other for me.

Brazil are looking formidable. I have never seen them defend better and I thought their 1994 winners were as good a defensive unit as they have ever produced.

But based on what I have seen so far and if England were to fall along the way, I would genuinely hope Argentina won it.

It helps when you have got some of the players they can call on, but it would be healthy for football if a team playing with such freedom and so attack-minded lifted the trophy.

What those two teams clearly have are leaders – and if I have one nagging worry tomorrow it is our lack of them.

I know everyone singles out Terry as a man to stand up and counted, but I’m not so sure he was there on Friday night. The only genuine leader I see in this group is Steven Gerrard – but England need more if they are to go any further.

Leaders don’t come in the same form. They are not always fire and brimstone. Some do it by the way they conduct themselves on the pitch, by the way they never hide. Maybe now we are starting to see in a sharper focus just how valuable David Beckham was. I don’t think this outburst would have occurred had Beckham been fit to captain the squad.

Most of all, give me that bit of arrogance. That does not mean being disrespectful to opponents.

It means when they step on to the pitch, they KNOW how good they are, they KNOW what they have to do and they KNOW they can do it. It’s the right sort of arrogance. It is an arrogance all champions possess.

We need it tomorrow.