Injured IIRC.
The guys who started yesterday are all still regular starters or close to it, just not Defoe, and that's got a lot to do with the striker shortage and injuries. Plus they could've picked Welbeck who's started both games for United this season.
I think the problem is just that football has taken a sharp technical turn in the past few years and English footballers are notoriously unsubtle. You see it when Spanish players come into the Premiership- Cazorla, Mata, Michu, guys that weren't even making the Spain squad- and they just look head and shoulders above everyone else. Then you have guys like Walcott, often the only English starter for Arsenal and his first touch sticks out like a sore thumb.
The next generation of Cleverly, Welbeck, Sturridge, Wilshere are pretty good technically but Wilshere's injured and the others aren't quite there yet. But in any case, fans in the UK don't really appreciate good technique and consistent passing; it's not how they like to see the game played. Deep-lying midfielders become hate figures for "only ever passing the ball sideways" and target men become cult heroes. Football is an expression of masculinity here in a way that it isn't anywhere else; we love a good crunching tackle or a metaphor that compares the match to a fight. And hate diving and admitting (or feigning) pain much, much more than anyone else. It's a cultural feature of football in the UK that's looking more and more like a flaw that's holding the national team back.
