Steve McManaman exclusive: England players 'scared' to represent their country

I fear for the future of the England national team because from what I have seen over the course of the last couple of weeks at Euro 2016, the players are now afraid to perform when they pull that shirt on.

Such is the level of criticism that comes the way of England players these days, I suspect some of them do not look forward to meeting up for international matches and they certainly don't enjoy the big tournaments that come around every other year.

We have had vivid evidence of that in the last two major tournaments they have played, with the disastrous 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil backed up by what is probably the most disastrous performance in the entire history of the England national team in Nice.

[McManaman: Worst ever England defeat will taint players for ever]

[Euro 2016: Time for Rooney to retire?]

[Iceland's win easier than expected, says coach]

Okay, we are not the best team in the world, but England should never lose to Iceland at anything, never mind football. It was unacceptable and you could see the fear grip the players as the game started to go against them.

I was astonished by the lack of invention England showed as they tried to chase the game in the second half against an Icelandic side that were little more than spirited and organised. How many chances did Roy Hodgson's side create as the game edged towards a conclusion and disaster loomed? Zero, precisely zero.

You can carry one or two passengers in a game, but carrying 11 is impossible and aside from Marcus Rashford (who did well in the four minutes we saw of him), every England player had a nightmare performance against Iceland.

In my eyes, that is partly because the players knew what was coming at them and couldn't cope with the pressure of the situation they were in.

[Social media explodes as England crash out and Hodgson resigns]

[Defiant Rooney says he won't be forced into retirement]

[England 1-2 iceland: What the pundits said]

I looked around an England team that featured some good players in my view and there was nothing coming back. They were inhibited by the pressure of playing international football and whoever comes in to manage England next has to find a way of getting rid of that tension.

I have been in attendance for all four of England's game at Euro 2016 and let's be honest, they have been dreadful throughout.

The first half against Russia in the opening game was decent, but everything has fallen apart since then and now this set of players will forever be remembered as the team that were present when England recorded their most humiliating and desperate result in international history.

Clearly, they were not helped by the disastrous tactics deployed by Hodgson and his management team of Ray Lewington and Gary Neville, who need too take a large share of the blame for the last two lamentable England performances in major tournaments.

[Icelandic commentator goes crazy again after win over England]

[Watch: Wales players celebrate England's exit]

[England 1-2 Iceland in pictures]

To get to his third tournament as England manager and not have any idea of his best team or his approach to break teams down and win games reflected very poorly on Hodgson. He is a decent man, but he was out of his depth in this jobs over the last four years.

Having had the honour of playing for England myself, there is no doubt that pressure goes with the territory and if you can't deal with that, then you really shouldn't sign up to play for the national team.