I think the term 'polishing a turd' has never been more apt. I dont think changing the manager would make one jot of difference, the fact is this is the worst group of eligible players we have ever had.
there's no perfect ranking system. some are less bad than others, but that's about all. a team might have done well during february, say, but if they did fantastically in the previous february and games beyond a year ago are reduced in value, it's going to be big hit to the ratings. like any kind of rolling averages.
I know it's nothing knew that these rankings are frigging mental. But how can a 100% record be worth a 3 point increase and Czech Republic go up by 65 points? I'd be surprised if they've beat anyone good in that time. I know we've played some **** sides but those two you mentioned can't have played much better and I'll be amazed if either of them have won 7 in a row (or whatever it is we've done).
The Czech Republic beat the Netherlands, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Iceland, all in competitive qualifying games. Which is pretty good going, didn't know they'd beat Holland. They're currently on 12 points in their group whilst the Netherlands are on 6. Romania also top their group, but there's no-one particularly impressive in their group. I see they drew with Argentina in a friendly though, which I suspect was a big point scorer for them. Edit: Looks like I was a bit slow on that one.