Capello Losing Contol?

In the aftermath of England’s latest World Cup disappointment, one factor stands above the rest, that one man has seen an alarming descent in his performances. From the Italian general that ruled the fields of Zagreb and Berlin with such control and calmness to a lone authoritarian figure, refusing to name teams more than two hours in advance, and failing to do exactly what he is paid £6.5 million per annum to do; adapt his teams system and tactics to beat whoever is placed in front of them.

Fabio Capello started his tenure as England manager promising, like many before him, to pick players purely based on form. The cases of Michael Owen and Owen Hargreaves suggest a manger that stuck to his word, but delve into Capello’s final 23-man squad and a worrying trend occurs.

Ask any EPL (English Premier League) fan to name a form English team of the year and Adam Johnson will make it into most sides, whether he plays on the right or left is the real debate. Since his reported £7 million pound move from Middlesbrough to Manchester City on deadline day in January he has often been the shining light of consistency in an inconstant and changing Manchester City team. Johnson has managed to overtake the once promising talent of Shaun Wright-Phillips at his club side, but was given only 6 minutes of game time to impress during the world cup warm up matches. With so little time to impress on the pitch one would think Johnson had been lacklustre in training, but not according to England captain Steven Gerrard; “Adam has looked fantastic in training,” Gerrard said. “He is a typical left-winger, he gets good crosses into the box, and is exciting on the ball. This leaves a rather strange collection of facts, with Johnson having been in constantly good form, trained well and impressed senior England figures but unable to make the final 23 man squad. The same argument can be used but to a lesser extent with the Everton full back Leighton Baines, who was overlooked for a man who simply hadn’t had the chance to put off the manager with an average performance, as Baines did against Mexico.

The worrying trend that Capello delivered in his final 23 man squad was not just his inability to pick and play the form players of the past 12 months, but his fear of youth and inexperience (lets face it, if your name is not Wayne Rooney and you have 60 caps before your 24th birthday, the two go hand in hand) and willingness to pick and play players older but not necessarily wiser. What made Capello so brilliant in his early tenure as England manager was his willingness to take risks and be bold, an ability he seems to have lost since the turn of the year. Classic examples of these are sketched in the memory banks of the eternal England fan, THAT night in Zagreb where so many memories were put to rest. The selection of Walcott, but not using him not as a defensive winger in a 4-4-2 formation (Shaun Wright-Phillips against USA anyone?), but as an attacker, using our strengths rather than concentrating on stopping the opposition.

Tactically Capello seems to have become as confused as his predecessor’s have been, failing to find the right combination to the Gerrard/Lampard debate, leaving England with a lopsided midfield and strikers playing so deep you wondering who on earth is keeping the opposition centre backs company all those yards away. What should really worry the England fan is not that Capello is making mistakes; mistakes are part of parcel of life, a learning curve, but rather the fact that Capello seems to have lost his bravery to make big calls. For too long now England have attended major tournaments with fear, too afraid to make any mistakes so happy to sit back and lets things happen in front of them. I wonder when the last time England really attacked a team in a major tournament was, for mine it was over six years ago at EURO 2004, when a young, fearless and inexperienced Wayne Rooney took on Croatia in Lisbon. Bravery comes in many forms, but one thing is for certain, if a group of individuals or a team are to show bravery then it must start from top, the leader, the manager. Capello has lost his bravery and with it England have lost there’s, if England are to start playing football at this tournament it needs to start with the manager making brave, bold and attacking decisions and to start influencing the game tactically once it has begun.

During this world cup Capello has either been so arrogant that he didn’t want to change his system or bring on players with time to influence the game or he was too fearful, both are very worrying indeed. English sport in general seems to suffer from a fear factor, with the Rugby Union team suffering from white line fever since that glorious evening in Sydney seven years ago and the cricket team famed for ‘playing within it’s shell’ (the T20 World Cup win being a notable exception, with England proclaiming a ‘no fear’ approach). Things can change, Italia’ 90 with three at the back is testament to that, but changing only the tactics wont rescue this world cup adventure for England. Capello needs to find in himself the leader that we once knew, forget the captain, England need to be inspired from the very top, the manager.

Michael Heslop

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