It’s crunch time. England go into today’s crucial game against Austria knowing that defeat will all but end their hopes of automatic qualification for next year’s world cup.

A win, on the other hand, followed by another against Poland on Wednesday and England will be back on track for a crack at the world’s elite in Germany. It’s that finely balanced.

Of course it’s not the first time in history that England have gone into the final qualification games needing results to progress. It happens just about every major tournament in fact. We should be used to it.

But this time there was absolutely no reason for it to get to this stage. If we had beaten Northern Ireland a few weeks ago then it would practically be all over by now and Sven would be flicking through his Swedish-to-English-to-German dictionary rather than desperately seeking success.

Right from the off here, I want to make it clear that I still believe England will qualify. Austria are already out of the competition with no chance of making progress and Poland, although group leaders, are hardly a formidable side.

Even if all goes horribly wrong, England will certainly end up with a place in the play-offs and, with their backs against the wall, I would expect them to win any two-legged match against any opponent.

Yet it should not have come to this. We should be there already. A combination of lacklustre leadership, passionless players and traumatic tactics have ruined an otherwise sweet qualification campaign.

I know I tend to harp on about Sven being the wrong man for the job, but it is surprising how many people have now come round to my way of thinking. People who previously had stood by the Swede through thin and thin.

And despite the protestations of the players to the contrary, I would imagine there are more than a few members of the squad asking questions about Sven’s leadership.

Yes, they have been wheeled out over the last week to sing the boss’ praises. But did anyone really expect them to do otherwise? Lampard, Cole and Owen have all gone public to insist Sven has not lost the dressing room. But can you imagine if they had said anything other than that? They wouldn’t dare. Their international career depends on sucking up to whoever is in the hotseat.

All of the players have been trying to take the blame themselves for England’s recent performances. Like 22 wannabe martyrs they have all insisted it was them that failed to perform, that is was them who didn’t show the passion that is required of anybody playing for their country.

And there is certainly an element of that in the situation.

But the majority of the blame still has to lay on the shoulders of the turnip, sorry, Swede, who picked them in the first place, made them play a formation that is alien to them and then failed to motivate them into reversing the mess he had cooked up.

Austria are not a good team. They are not awful, but certainly not that good. They have lost their management team recently and have nothing to play for today other than pride.

England have it all to play for. A return to 4-4-2 should help them keep the shape they so obvious lacked in Belfast while the memory of that performance should help them rediscover some long-missing passion.

But it still all hinges on Sven, his team selection, his game plan, his ability to motivate and inspire.

So, with that in mind, don’t be totally surprised if there is another shock result on the cards today, a score draw or even an Austrian victory are extremely unlikely but not completely impossible.

England fans deserve a return to form. With the current crop of players we deserve to be watching football that is both pleasing to the eye and effective.

If that isn’t delivered then it will be time for the vultures which have been circling over Sven’s head for months now to finally swoop.

The English media, for sure, is already licking its collective lips at the prospect of a long-overdue managerial casualty. And so am I.

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