There has inevitably been a lot of discussion about the recent failings of the English football team. Blame for defeat in the World Cup has been put down to the manager, the system, the players and the money they get. It would seem that everybody has an opinion as to what went wrong. In some ways there are similarities between football teams and nursing teams in the way that they are managed. Nurses may not get anywhere near the salaries that football stars get, but they need to work together as a whole to reach their goals. If there is any discord or friction between team members then this can lead to problems and disruption. It may be that some team members are lazy and rely on others to do all the hard work, while they wait on the wings or roam about looking busy. There is a particular danger in nursing teams that some players reduce nursing care to a series of procedural steps or tasks, without understanding the underlying principles on which nursing methods are based.