Peter Crouch has revealed Fabio Capello has urged England's players to have confidence in their abilities despite the disappointing opening World Cup draw with the United States. The Italian has told his players it is not all doom and gloom after Robert Green's mistake gifted USA an equaliser.
Crouch, who appeared as a second-half substitute, said: "The manager knows we can do better.
"He told us he saw things in the first game that were encouraging and he has taken them and told us we should still believe in ourselves and what we are doing.
"Those are the things we need to take into the next game.
"Obviously we can improve and we know that but there were those encouraging signs as well.
"We were disappointed not to have won the game.
"When we scored the early goal, we thought we'd go on and do that but it wasn't to be."
Crouch added: "I think a lot of the first games in groups don't quite live up to expectations. It's often the way.
"Hopefully we will go on and do a lot better from now on.
"We all know that and we have to make sure we get it right, starting against Algeria.
"But we didn't lose the game, like a lot of people seem to be making out and we've got to go forward with confidence.