ENGLAND coach Fabio Capello claims tiredness was behind his stars' humiliating performance at the World Cup Finals.
The sum total of the nation's tournament was draws with USA and Algeria, a narrow victory over Slovenia and a record defeat at this level to Germany in the first knockout stage.

Capello, who had claimed his team were primed and ready for Sunday's showdown, feels fatigue was the major factor behind the disappointment and advocates a winter break.

"I think it's not just Wayne Rooney but all the English players were really tired at this competition," he stated.

"I spoke with the coaches and all the coaches told me that the situation, the physical and mental situation, was not like the players that we know.

"How they played during the qualification and the autumn period was when we are the best.

"Rooney played well in some games but we can't speak about one player. All the players were not so good as I know because they played not so fast and not so quick like I know they played in other games.

"I can see in seven games, against Egypt, Mexico, Japan and the games we played here including the friendly, that we played some moments well but not so fast like I remember."

Speaking about the Germany debacle, he is still upset with Frank Lampard's goal that never was.

"I think we are together not happy because of two reasons," he added. "The first is the second goal was okay. I know like a manager, like a player that when you're winning 2-0 and, in a short time, here we are at 2-2 the motivation for different things is completely different.

"We played a good game after 2-1 to the moment they scored the third goal. The players were not happy for the result and, after 3-1, Germany played better than us and they scored the last two goals in the contest."

However, fitness was the main theme of his explanation for the flop.

"The performance was not the level that I know and we are really tired every time at a competition we have to play in June," he said.

"I think Germany always arrive at the second part of the season well and I think it's important to recover the force in this winter period but it's not my job to decide about it.

"But the players were not difficult to deal with - the players tried to do everything in the best moment.

"Look, when I chose the players I decided, I followed all the players for a long time. I decided on the best players that finished the season. I don't know how many players were fresher. Adam Johnson played a lot of games and he's just one of the players.

"We spoke also (with Richards) about changes and about younger players we can play for the next qualification and I know what I have to do."

Capello said his formation depends on the players he has in his squad and refused to be drawn on whether he'll stick with 4-4-2.

He also had to field a difficult direct question on whether he thought he was worth his bumper salary.

"I think it's not the money but the value of the man," he insisted.