Lugano, on the borders of Switzerland and Italy, is a lovely place at this
time of year. Green mountains, bathed in sun, deep blue lakes, calm and
restful. Just the spot to do some serious thinking. It is as well that Fabio
Capello, the England manager, has a home there.
Having taken England through four non-competitive games since the trauma of
failing to qualify for the European Championship, Capello now has decisions
to make. The headlinemaking call concerns the captaincy and, with David
Beckham announcing that he does not want the job, Capello has narrowed the
candidates down from five to two: John Terry or Rio Ferdinand.
This is an echo of the summer that his predecessor, Steve McClaren, spent
deliberating over Terry or Steven Gerrard as captain and, like McClaren,
Capello enters with an open mind. His sole rider is that his selection must
be a leader on the pitch, which torpedoes the speculation that Terry's
occasional lurid flirtations with tabloid front pages would count against
him.
“He must be an example on the field,” Capello said. “I want someone that when
he speaks, the team listens. That is very important. In Italy it is all
about the number of games you have played, so you just sit down, add up, and
that is the captain. Here, the captain has to be someone with a strong
personality. He must transmit confidence to the team and be the right arm of
the manager. I have two ideas, and I will decide in the summer.”
Initial soundings appeared to favour Ferdinand, although with talk of
captaincy by example, the more traditional qualities of Terry's leadership
are now being given firm consideration.
Capello was genuinely impressed by the ten days he spent with his players at
the end of this season, and those not present, such as Micah Richards,
Michael Carrick and Michael Owen, missed more than just a few days in the
Caribbean sun.
Richards could feature at right back in the final friendly game against the
Czech Republic and there is no question of Owen's international career
suffering as a result of his unavailability with a viral reaction to
medication taken to prepare for the trip to Trinidad. In his absence,
Jermain Defoe thrived, although that does not mean Owen will be discounted
in August, when the last round of fine-tuning takes place.
Capello's auditions for a striker are continuing and Defoe, while impressive
in Port of Spain on Sunday, is still missing his certificate of authenticity
as an international goalscorer; of his five goals for England, four have
been against Andorra and Trinidad & Tobago. Peter Crouch was similarly
doubted until his goal against Croatia in November. Defoe did score the
first goal away to Poland in a World Cup qualifier under Sven-Göran
Eriksson, but that night will be almost four years gone when the new season
starts.
The midfield four now has shape, with Steven Gerrard given what Capello
regards as a free role, starting from the left. Gerrard was ordinary when
used centrally against Trinidad, but that will not be held against him,
considering that the match came at the end of a long season. When all are
fit, however, Gerrard will be moved out of the middle, where defensive
duties are all-important, and started wide, then given the freedom to pursue
the play as he pleases.
Capello believes there is no point tying him down and he can be most effective
for England when liberated. He thinks Gerrard has had a problem with his
confidence at international level and sees this as the solution. It also
fits in with his conviction that England must risk more to improve against
the best teams, and Capello is not worried that a 4-4-2 system might be
swamped in midfield by teams who play with a modern 4-5-1.
“If they play one more in midfield, they have one less playing forward,”
Capello said. “It is the risk we all take. In the last two games I saw many
positive moments from England, players with confidence and that is
important. So, yes, you can lose, but you have to be willing to take risks.
If you are not confident enough in yourself, you will never do that and will
lose anyway.”
It is fair to assume that Capello's central midfield will be risk-assessed
game by game. Frank Lampard was not at his best against the United States,
but Capello put that down to a tiring season, the recent death of his mother
and uncertainty over his future at Chelsea. He is happy with Lampard, Owen
Hargreaves and Gareth Barry competing for two roles, and personnel may
change according to the status of the match. As England play Andorra first
in the World Cup qualifiers, then Croatia away, it hardly requires a
one-size-fits-all approach.
“It is impossible to decide the best 11 always,” Capello said. “The most
important thing is to have 16 players at the same level that I can change
every game, because sometimes there will be one player who is not in good
condition or on good form and I can substitute him.
“We have improved, but we can play better and we need to improve more by the
time we play Croatia. I cannot say that the players against Czech Republic
will be the same ones as the team against Croatia, but the squad will be the
same.
“The quality of England footballers is higher than I expected. It gives me
encouragement. I do not believe in the Fifa proposal that there should be a
quota of English players in every team. English players should be playing at
the top clubs because they are outstanding, not because of a quota, and I am
happy with the quality that I have. England play only a few games, so
everyone remembers everything about these matches. For your club you play
maybe 60 times a year, so everyone forgets those occasions when you don't
play well.
“But it is impossible to arrive at the final of the Champions League with nine
English players and not have high quality. It wasn't only foreign players in
the Manchester United and Chelsea teams, but English, too. And these are
good players, like Wayne Rooney, who has a very good chance of becoming one
of the best in the world.” On that note of positivism, Capello broke for the
summer. Keep that thought warm, people: because you are going to need it
over the next month.
The cap fits for FA
The FA is adamant that the friendly against Trinidad & Tobago on Sunday will
stand as a full international despite the use of seven substitutes. Fifa
rules allow for only six replacements but Jack Warner, the Fifa
vice-president and a special adviser to Trinidad & Tobago, said that he had
negotiated a deal allowing for seven replacements — ostensibly to let Dwight
Yorke play a ceremonial role for the home side during the last 20 minutes.
There is nothing in the Fifa rulebook that allows for a special dispensation
and there were rumours last night, denied by the FA, that the three England
players who made their debuts, Stephen Warnock, the seventh substitute, Joe
Hart and Phil Jagielka, could lose their caps.
