Michael Vaughan has been credited with instilling his England side with self-belief.
That confidence, however, does not appear to extend to beating world champions Australia in the Ashes.
Twice Vaughan has been given the opportunity to predict the outcome of the series, and twice he has dodged it, swaying out of the way as if avoiding a waspish bouncer.
Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath had predicted a 5-0 whitewash before the first Test. Vaughan, in reply, said England would concentrate on their own game.
The question was re-phrased after England's 239-run defeat at Lord's. Vaughan, looking towards the second Test at Edgbaston this week, responded: "I think there's a real opportunity to go out there and play some good cricket again."
It was not exactly a spine-tingling, Churchillian call to arms from a man who had led England to 14 wins and a single defeat in 18 Tests before the arrival of the Australians.
In his evasion, Vaughan, so often praised for his fresh leadership, seemed to endorse the widely held view that the world champions remain untouchable.
McGrath and Shane Warne endorsed it as well at Lord's.
England's muscular fast bowlers began the series by clanging a few helmets and bustling the Australians out for 190 but their jubilation lasted about as long as it took McGrath to measure out his silky run-up.
He took five wickets for two runs in a 31-ball burst. On the fourth day, he wrapped up the match with four wickets for three runs in 23 balls.
As for Warne, he sparked England's second-innings collapse with three top-order wickets.
If England are to fight back in the five-match series at Edgbaston, Vaughan is going to have to provide more robust inspiration.
His batsmen, meanwhile, who could be supplemented by Paul Collingwood if left-arm spinner Ashley Giles is sacrificed, are going to have to find a way to combat two of the greatest bowlers (1,097 Test wickets between them) in the history of the game.
Attacking McGrath does not seem an option. The 35-year-old rarely offers batsmen any leeway.
LAME PERFORMANCE
Vaughan's men simply have to bat outside their creases and switch their guards to try and upset his routine, cover their stumps more effectively and outstare a bowler whose stated philosophy is to "just try to bore the batsmen out. It's pretty simple stuff...the complicated thing is to keep it simple."
Attacking Warne will also be fraught with danger but sitting back inside a necklace of close catchers would surely be even more precarious.
For English fans, it is hard to decide which was the more disappointing at Lord's; Vaughan's reluctance to blow England's trumpet or the lame batting performance.
Perhaps both captain and front-line batsmen should take a lessons from a man wearing 'L' plates.
Kevin Pietersen's self-confidence, expressed as a statement of fact rather than with any shade of arrogance, was already well-documented before he made his Test debut at Lord's.
His batting technique, however, was a revelation to those previously restricted to dissecting his one-day innings.
He may have swept a couple of his four sixes at Lord's off his stumps on his way to two half-centuries, but for the most part he played patiently and straight.
It took an extraordinary catch in the deep by Damien Martyn to dismiss him just the once. In all, Pietersen made 121 runs, more than a third of England's match total.
Unencumbered by too much responsibility, Pietersen has the freedom to talk more brashly than his captain and Vaughan could borrow a bit of his bravado in an attempt to motivate a badly bruised team.
The point has not been lost on Duncan Fletcher.
The England coach says of Pietersen: "From our point of view it is good to have someone who is so positive. That should rub off and make sure the guys hold their heads high when we get to Edgbaston."