Former Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris has defended under siege English coach Brendon McCullum
Two-nil down in the Ashes and yet to take more than 12 wickets in a game, England has been battered from pillar to post everywhere from Queensland to back home in the UK.
'Bazball' in particular has been torn to shreds, with former English greats coming from everywhere to stick the boot into McCullum and captain Ben Stokes
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However, the Test coach has remained calm in the face of everything.
Speaking after the loss at the Gabba, he was level headed, reflecting that they potentially trained too hard between Tests and said the group was looking forward to a break and a reset in Noosa for a few days.
His tone suggested the recent results weren't the end of the world and that the team could still fight back from here.
This, of course, was not received well given the current state of the series.
However, Harris, who coaches South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, believes McCullum deserves credit for sticking to what got him the job in the first place.
"That's very interesting isn't it. They've just been done again in four days, and by a fair bit, and he reckons they've over trained, that's strange, especially when they didn't go to that pink ball game in Canberra," Harris told 2GB's WWOS.
"Which I could understand given they were totally different conditions. The change in colour of the ball is not a big deal in this day and age for professionals.
"It's definitely interesting to hear him say that sort of stuff and that they over trained when they're not getting the performance.
"I think Brendon has really good plans and he sticks up for his players and I think that is the sign of a good coach.
"They're just not playing good enough cricket and we've got the wood over them at the moment I guess.
"What I do like about him is he stays calm and they would have had really good plans coming into this tour and obviously it hasn't gone to plan, but they're still comfortable with them and seeing them through and that involves a trip to Noosa in the next couple of days."
England's struggles to take 20 wickets in part lead back to star bowler Jofra Archer, who has struggled to perform consistently across both Tests.
While his speed has been up around 150km in his first spell, that has dropped away considerably with each subsequent spell and he has only taken three total wickets.
Harris believes the 30-year-old's issue is he simply hasn't played enough cricket in the lead-up to this series, and it's showing in his bowling.
"He hasn't played a lot of cricket. He hasn't even played a lot of white ball cricket, let alone red ball cricket and bowling over after over, that'd be the only thing," Harris said.
"I look at him when he's chasing the ball around in the field and even when he bowls in his second and third spells, he looks really stiff and sore, which is going to happen if you haven't played a lot of cricket.
"That can be the only reasoning behind (why he doesn't bowl top speed consistently).
"There's no doubt he's got it in him, he showed that last night and in the first Test early in spells.
"England really needs him to crank it up and be fast. Ben Stokes brought him on for a couple overs during that long first innings and he set short ball fields and Archer bowled slow and he pitched the ball up and you could see the frustration on Stokes' face.
"Archer just needs to play more cricket or just come in and bowl shorter spells and just bowl fast."
Archer has played four Test matches in 2025, including the two in Australia. They were his first red ball appearances since February of 2021 as he battled various injuries.
He has represented England in white ball formats in the meantime, but has not had to bowl repeated spells in a cauldron as hot as the Ashes since he burst onto the scene in 2019.
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