The old art of footballers abdicating responsibility is alive and well.
You may remember, following the sacking of Louis Van Gaal last month, there were a few well-sourced articles which exposed how unhappy United were with the Dutchman's tactics, finding them "restrictive", particularly the regular emails deconstructing a player's performance and Van Gaal's insistence on passing rather than shooting.
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A month later, a similar fate has befallen Roy Hodgson, whose ability to look the most baffled man in the stadium was stretched to the limit during England's extraordinary 2-1 defeat to Iceland. Sky Sports News have been busy, and have spoken to some members of the squad who have spelt out their disillusion with Hodgson in no uncertain terms.
According to the report, the players "lost faith" in Hodgson over the tournament, citing a number of team selections. These included playing a 4-3-3 formation, despite it not being used in qualifying, the selection of the out-of-form Raheem Sterling over Adam Lallana against Iceland, the reticence to throw on Marcus Rashford, the selection of Wayne Rooney in midfield, and the drafting of a resignation letter before the Iceland game, perhaps the neatest metaphor imaginable for a lack of self-belief among the English squad imaginable.
Sky's sources praised Hodgson's reaction at half-time - reminding the players to remain patient - but felt the number of changes for the Slovakia game (6) were too many, apparently interrupting England's momentum from the Welsh victory.
While Hodgson is undoubtedly a deeply flawed football manager, it is quite rich of his players to shine the focus on his failings rather than their own.
It also strengthens the feeling that the English national team is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Regardless of who is in charge, it's going down.
Read the full story on Sky's website, here.
