So much for the theory that the likes of Sven-Göran Eriksson and Steve
McClaren were blameless, let down by the shortcomings of the England
players. What a difference a good manager has made.
At the turn of the year, not long after Fabio Capello’s appointment, this
column rejected the canard that England’s failings at international level
were down to the foreign influx and consequent “shortage” of players
eligible for selection for the national team. The Sunday Times printed five
possible England lineups, the fourth of which included Joleon Lescott, Scott
Parker and Gabriel Agbonlahor, all of whom were on duty for that uplifting
2-1 win in Berlin last Wednesday.
The players were always there [Darren Bent was in my fifth team] but what was
needed was good, effective management to make optimum use of the resources.
Eriksson, of the laid-back approach, was not quite up to it and neither was
the matey McClaren, from mid-table Middlesbrough. Dear old Sven, now with
Mexico, has just contrived to lose to Honduras, which could bring him
another multimillion-pound payoff, and McClaren last surfaced when losing
3-2 at Manchester City in the Uefa Cup with Twente Enschede. Capello is in a
different class.
After an unimpressive start while he acquainted himself with his latest
challenge, he has gone from strength to strength, racking up four successive
wins in the World Cup qualifiers before embarrassing the Germans in Berlin,
where they had not lost since 1973. England are clearly a very different
proposition now to the low-morale ragbag who came to dread playing at
Wembley, where Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and others have been abused by
their own fans. These days the players exude confidence. The “fear factor”
to which Capello has alluded is a thing of the past.
England’s game plan is familiar, comprising variations on the bog-standard
4-4-2, and the players are largely the same. The difference? It is a cliche
but also a fact that football is played in the head as much as on the pitch.
“Upstairs” is where Capello went to work. Bruce Springsteen wrote a song
entitled From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), which could be the
Italian maestro’s mantra. Banning mobile phones, Playstations and tomato
ketchup, insisting on prompt timekeeping and the use of proper names instead
of nicknames won’t turn Shaun Wright-Phillips into Lionel Messi but the
orderly impression generated by the new code of conduct helped to restore
discipline after the laissez faire regimes that had become the norm. Players
like to be told what to do.
They share with services personnel that need, and respect, for authority.
Capello is every inch the camp commandant. As Lampard put it in these
columns last week: “He was just what we needed, bringing order and
leadership to the top.” Another player, Joe Hart, said: “None of us will
ever be his friend but he has this aura and is very clear in putting across
what he wants.”
The Manchester City goalkeeper could have been speaking for the English press.
No English journalist is even remotely close to Capello, and he is not
averse to spreading disinformation by giving us “bum steers”. Such leaks as
there are come from Italian newspapermen or occasionally from the assistant
manager, Franco Baldini.
There is not too much wrong with any of this, which comes as a pleasant change
after McClaren’s shameless spoon-feeding of his tabloid sycophants. In a
similar vein, to the relief of many of those involved, England have said
farewell and good riddance to the cringe-inducing chumminess that had
McClaren joining piggy-in-the-middle training games with his players and
routinely addressing them as “JT”, “Becks” and “Lamps”.
The small changes would have been no use, of course, if Capello had not been
up to the job, and for some time there were doubts. His first three games,
against Switzerland, France and the United States last season, varied from
ordinary to poor, with defeat in Paris horribly reminiscent of McClaren’s
dire reign. As recently as August there were murmurs of discontent at
Wembley when England were outplayed by the Czech Republic and lucky to draw
2-2. At that stage Capello was still indulging Beckham’s limpalong pursuit
of Bobby Moore’s caps record, despite his blatant lack of pace, and had
pushed Steven Gerrard out to the left, which rarely brings the best out of
the midfielder.
When the phoney-war friendlies were over and the real thing began, England’s
start in their World Cup qualifying group was hardly the cause of unbridled
rejoicing, a 2-0 win over little Andorra the footballing equivalent of a
golfing bogey, and only in the last four of Capello’s 10 games has he come
good.
The turning point was Zagreb in September. Croatia had won 3-2 at Wembley 10
months earlier to put McClaren’s team out of Euro 2008 and were widely
expected to emerge victorious again. O ye of little faith. I was the only
journalist to stay in the hotel England used in the Croatian capital and
witness their meticulous preparations.
Capello showed the players recordings of previous matches, where they had been
going wrong, and pointed up faults in the opposition. He was at pains to
lift confidence levels, both individual and collective, particularly with
Emile Heskey, whose imposing physical presence he thought could be key, and
Theo Walcott, who had faded in the second half against Andorra four days
earlier and feared he would be dropped. The Arsenal tyro’s selection in
Barcelona was seen as proof of Capello’s claim to select players on grounds
of form, fitness and performance rather than reputation.
Walcott was not originally in the team to play Andorra but was preferred to
Beckham and David Bentley because of his eye-catching excellence in training
the day before the game. In Zagreb, as is his custom, Capello did not reveal
the starting lineup until shortly before the bus left for the stadium, but
Walcott had guessed he was in from the drills practised to work him and Joe
Cole in behind the Croatian defence. Capello had spotted at Euro 2008 that
while Croatia’s full-backs were a threat going forward, their attacking
inclinations made them vulnerable on the back foot.
England exploited this and Heskey dominated so much that Walcott rattled in a
high class hat-trick. It was a tactical triumph, one that afforded its
architect added respect from players and public alike. The 5-1 demolition of
Kazakhstan that followed and a 3-1 win in Belarus yielded maximum points
from the first four matches in the World Cup qualifying series, which
resumes on April 1 when Ukraine arrive. Until then it is friendly fare
again, with all the disdain such fixtures bring from Premier League managers
and some of their players. “Meaningless” is the usual description, uttered
most recently by Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill. Capello bridles at that and
has noted how few erstwhile critics have been banging on about the futility
of the German adventure after the memorable night it produced.
England had eight regulars missing in Berlin yet deserved to prevail by a more
convincing margin than 2-1. In the bars after the game, and at the airport
while they awaited their return flights, fans were questioning whether they
would have seen such passion and commitment from the established
first-teamers, whom they have come to regard as blasé fatcats. It is a point
worthy of debate, if ultimately an unproductive one. Fitness permitting,
Lampard, Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Heskey et al will be back
next time. The situation to be celebrated is not the passing of the old
guard but the fact that England now have a competitive squad, with capable
cover for every position.
Suddenly the left flank is not the headache it was, given Stewart Downing’s
overdue arrival as a player of international quality. Matthew Upson provides
effective back-up for Ferdinand and Terry, while the absence of Lampard,
Gerrard or Owen Hargreaves will be less of a blow now that Michael Carrick
has shown he can dovetail effectively with Gareth Barry. The most striking
aspect of Wednesday’s triumph, however, was the reminder of the adage that
pace is any defender’s worst enemy. The speed of Wright-Phillips and
Agbonlahor terrified the Germans. England will be taking a desperately
retrograde step if they ever go back to Beckham’s predictable plodding and
delivery from the halfway line. With another flyer, Walcott, to return after
his shoulder operation, old Goldenballs has had his day.
Others with less reason than most to salute events in midweek include David
Bentley, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, Jermaine Jenas and Micah Richards, none
of whom appears to loom large on Capello’s radar.
The man himself deserves to have the last word. “Don’t call me a national
hero, it is a very long time before we arrive in South Africa [for the World
Cup]. But when I go walking with my wife, near where we live, I can feel the
respect, which is nice. The spirit in this group of players is as good as
any I have ever managed and I am very happy with that.
“When I started at Milan, the spirit was already there, but in my last season
at Real Madrid it took me five months of hard work to create it. If you want
to win anything, you first have to build this. It is the most important
thing for the players in a national team. When I arrived, we needed time to
recover that spirit. It is very important to have leaders in your team, like
Terry, Upson, Carrick and Glen Johnson. Carrick has the spirit of Manchester
United and understands everything. Downing was fantastic on Wednesday, and
Wright-Phillips played like a ‘loco’, as they say in Spain. A crazy man.
“The new players played like older players and that’s very important. Now I
know that it is no problem if we have injuries. I see two right-backs, four
centre-backs, two left-backs, two left-wingers and three strikers. I have
strength in depth and players I can rely on. My one wish now is for us to
play at Wembley like we do away. Our biggest test now is Ukraine at
Wembley.”
The press view: what a difference a year makes
Almost a year to the day after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008,
following a 3-2 home defeat by Croatia, Fabio Capello could bask in the glow
of the media praise that followed his side’s accomplished 2-1 win in Germany
on Wednesday.
It was praise that his predecessor could only dream of during his time in
charge of the Three Lions. Steve McClaren was labelled the Wally with the
Brolly by the press after watching his side lose on that rainy night at
Wembley in November 2007. McClaren was also described as a ‘lame duck boss
in charge of a lame duck team’.
Although Capello won few admirers for the way his team played in their first
few games under him, the honeymoon appears to have finally kicked in.
Reports last week hailed him for ‘putting the pride back into England’ after
the team completed five consecutive wins for the first time since 2006
THIS IS WHAT WE COULD HAVE HAD . . .
It was deja vufor Sven-Göran Eriksson last week when the Mexican press
called for him to be sacked as coach after a 1-0 defeat by Honduras.
Eriksson endured a similar campaign as England boss. Even though Mexico
sneaked into the final stage of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, the
sports daily Record urged ‘Kick him out. It only costs $4m,’ referring
to a clause in Eriksson’s contract if he is sacked
Steve McClaren, Eriksson’s No 2, who presided over England’s disastrous Euro
2008 qualifying campaign, is also under pressure at Twente Enschede. Twente
have taken one point from their past three games and slipped into mid-table
