Steven Gerrard claimed that he had proved a point to his detractors by scoring one goal and making another from an unfamiliar position on the left of midfield as England beat Belarus 3-1 last night, but the main person he has to convince is himself. Fabio Capello has never had any doubts, playing the Liverpool midfield player in all seven of the matches for which he has been available during his reign and giving him every chance to prove he deserves to be at the heart of the team.

As an introverted character, Gerrard has always seen his glass as being half-empty, but after playing a pivotal role in what was a mature team performance against Belarus, he may have finally exorcised his demons about not playing in his preferred position in central midfield. After glowering around the team hotel all week, his face broke into a rare smile after giving England the lead in the eleventh minute, a goal that gave him the confidence to go on and play an important role in the game.

Strangely for a man who has won the European Cup with Liverpool and is worshipped by supporters for his consistently excellent performances at one of the world’s leading clubs, for Gerrard it is often all about validation.

“Whenever you play for England you always have a point to prove,” he said. “It was nice to score a goal and get the win. People have been focused on my place in the team and the partnership with Frank Lampard, but as long as I am in this team and winning football matches I am happy.”

South Africa looms large for Capello

Belarus 1 England 3: Steven Gerrard opens the scoring before Wayne Rooney takes centre-stage with double strike

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MIdfielder claimed he had proved detractors wrong by scoring one goal and making another from left midfield

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After transforming a rump of players who failed to qualify for the European Championship finals into World Cup qualifying record-breakers in little more than six months, Capello will be hailed as a managerial genius, but many of his decisions have been simple common sense. The Italian quickly identified Wayne Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard as his most potent attacking weapons and has devised a system that can incorporate all three in his side.

Capello plays down the importance of formations and is more concerned with ensuring that his players understand their specific roles. In the first half, Gerrard was handed an essentially free role with licence to cut in from the left, although after half-time he was asked to do a marking job on Alexander Kulchy. “I asked Gerrard to play between the lines, between midfield and defenders,” Capello said. “But when we won back the ball we lost it a lot of times. We lost possession too much because they were pressing us so much in the first half. In the second half, I asked Gerrard to go man-to-man on their No 2.

“The movement helped us. Giving formations numbers is a stupid idea, always. The new style of international football is 9-1.”

Although not the life and soul of the party, Gerrard is well liked by his team-mates, with Rio Ferdinand expressing the hope that yesterday’s performance will liberate him.

“I am delighted for Steven,” he said. “Maybe he was a little overcritical of himself. You can’t always be superman for every game you play. He does it a lot for Liverpool and he has done it a couple of times for England. He is his own worst critic, because you want to do it all the time for England. Tonight was a step in the right direction, it was a great finish.

“It’s good, but still there is much to improve. It doesn’t make us qualify because we have won four on the bounce — it puts us in a good position. We’re happy with where we are, but we want to keep winning games.”