I think part of the problem is we no longer have an identity to the way we play, we don't have a Modric, Hamsik, Iniesta type player to create and probe and dictate in midfield yet often we try to play that way. Instead of pass and move we seem to pass and then stand still. So many times Rooney and later Wilshire had no options with the ball as there was a line of three or four players standing right up on the defence, nobody was making runs or offering themselves for a pass. So often an English player would have the ball and be lucky to find a team mate within 10 yards of him, consequently the ball would go slowly backwards or sideways.
We apparently had intended to play wide and get crosses in. I recall one from Sturridge that Kane hit a great volley from but straight at the keeper. Other than that I think Rose had one that was blocked for a corner.
The tactics were baffling at best and turned into a shapeless mess in the second half. Sven Goran Erikkson said many years ago that English players have no intelligence to react to changes on the pitch and figure it out for himself, perhaps he's correct.
My biggest bugbear of all - playing players out of position.
At what point during the season did Hodgson watch Vardy playing so well for Leicester and scoring goals and think I'm going to pick him in the England squad and play him out wide??? Likewise with Sturridge, spending the whole game out on the right wing.
Rooney, well as he has played at times in midfield for Utd and in the group games is an inexperienced midfielder. We're looking for an equaliser and our all time record goalscorer is floating around in midfield looking lost, trying too hard and giving the ball away. Then Hodgson looks to an 18yr old to sort it out (and he did more in his 5 mins than the rest of them put together)
Then you have his strange squad selections. Sterling has been awful for City all season and if he'd been playing for a lesser club wouldn't have been anywhere near that squad. Wilshere on the back of a game or two all season, clearly not match fit. Drinkwater, probably the best English midfielder in the Premier last season not even taken, while Barkley was taken and clearly not trusted as never used.
Townsend brought into the initial 26 squad and given 15 mins as a sub in the three friendly games and discarded, why bother picking him for the initial squad and not giving him a chance. I think he's a bit of a one trick pony but he was exactly what we could have done with against Iceland.
Anyway this turned into a rant now so I'll stop