England’s Italian coach, no stranger to the code of omerta, gives precious little away when it comes to his methods, but after an unimpressive start in some tedious friendlies, he is getting it right when it matters, and maximum points from two away games is the most promising of opening gambits in the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Let us get the caveats out of the way, before saluting the positives. England scored three of their four goals in midweek against 10 men, after Robert Kovac’s deserved dismissal for leaving Joe Cole with a head wound that required 10 stitches. Furthermore, there is a deterrent history of celebrating a new dawn too soon, notably after the 5-1 demolition of Germany in Munich seven years ago, when Sven-Göran Eriksson’s conquering heroes returned and made desperately hard work of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup.

Other examples abound. Steve McClaren gained many temporary admirers after the 4-0 drubbing of the then European champions, Greece, in his first match in charge, and was lauded again after a 3-0 victory over Russia a year ago, almost to the day. But if he is an international manager, he really is the Dutchman he seems to think he is. Even minimal circumspection demands the acknowledgement that these are still early days, that Croatia with a full complement remain capable of repeating last season’s success come the return at Wembley in 12 months’ time, and that Ukraine are an obvious threat, at home and away.

All that said, however, there was encouragement and genuine cause for guarded optimism to be had from last Wednesday’s events in a fortress where the Croats had not previously lost a competitive fixture. For the first time since Capello’s appointment, England resembled the real deal, at last playing to their potential, with the whole actually amounting to the sum of its constituent parts. Had they played like this under McClaren, not only would they have qualified for the Euros, they would have rivalled Spain for the title.

Ah, but consistency, there’s the rub. Can they do it again and again, starting with the back-to-back matches against Kazakhstan and Belarus next month? The players, heartened by their progress over the past week or so, believe it is possible. To that end, Capello has changed the personnel, the tactics and the approach of all those concerned. It is interesting, and significant, to note that of the starting XI beaten at home by Croatia last November, there were just three survivors in Zagreb: Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole.

Gone, and left to ponder an uncertain future, were Scott Carson, Micah Richards, Wayne Bridge, Joleon Lescott, Sol Campbell, Steven Gerrard, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Peter Crouch. Richards and Gerrard are good enough to return sooner rather than later, but the same can hardly be said of the rest.

The deployment this time was also different, with 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 and 4-3-2-1 discarded, temporarily at least, in favour of a pleasingly and productively adventurous 4-3-3, featuring “proper” wingers, rather than midfield auxiliaries.

Joe Cole and Theo Walcott possess the craft and the pace to go past their full-back on the outside; a matchwinning option England have lacked too often during the Beck-ham years, and whenever Gerrard has been played out of position, on the left.

The team had a good shape to it on Wednesday and, just as important, themodus operandi had been well rehearsed. Much was made by Capello and his players of the fact that nine days together had given them the precious time needed for meticulous preparation, and that it wasn’t wasted. On the training ground, in twice-a-day sessions, and in meetings at the Regent Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb, where a function suite was available round-the-clock for the purpose, the coach ingrained his ideas, spelt out his game plan and briefed individuals, one-on-one, on exactly what he expected from them.

Their specific roles were made crystal-clear. The team may not have been formally announced until the players boarded the bus for the Maksimir stadium, but the lineup had been apparent in advance; certainly throughout a two-hour run-through the day before the game, when much of the time was spent manoeuvring Walcott and Joe Cole in behind the opposing full-backs to supply Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney.

Displaying the basic diligence one might expect for £6m a year, Capello and his general manager, Franco Baldini, attended Euro 2008 to check out Croatia and identified their attacking full-backs as a major threat. It was decided that to negate this strength, England needed to play “on the front foot” and to push forward down both flanks, hence Walcott and Cole, who rehearsed their roles in the 2-0 defeat of Andorra last weekend.

It worked a treat in Zagreb, but not just because of Walcott’s gob-smacking contribution; everybody played his part in full measure. The defence was solid; as it should have been, with only one striker to mark; Lampard’s discipline in midfield kept Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric quiet and the kaleidoscopic movement of Walcott, Heskey and Rooney shredded Croatia at the back.