A proud, smart man who has achieved big trophies at club level, Fabio Capello has been damaged by the England job.
He’s been damaged so much that he’s lost the plot.
He didn’t want to quit on a 4-1 defeat in Bloemfontain because that would be an ugly stain on his legacy.
My guess is that, like Sven, he watched England’s first training sessions and was staggered by their lack of technique and tidy habits.
So, to compensate, Capello decided on a shape with two holding midfielders, Lampard and Barry, taught them how to keep the ball better, and won his first eight qualifying games.
In South Africa, Rio got crocked in England’s first training session and, day by day, the campaign went into meltdown after that injury and we saw the highest-paid manager at the 2010 World Cup lead us to a 4-1 disaster against Germany, our biggest defeat ever in a tournament. A big downer in a World Cup that was deeply disappointing, football-wise.
The English media has been tabloid-led since 1992 and it’s got a lot worse in the digital world of 24/7 rolling news.
Myself, I thought if a smooth Swedish pleaser could get us to three quarter-finals, a top Italian, who has been the most successful manager in the world, might get us to a semi.
I reckon Capello lost the dressing room at the World Cup, lost the fans back home, lost the media, who will not rest till they get him out, even though he is not the problem. Our lack of good footballers is the problem.
Right now, Fabio Capello feels battered and besieged as never before in his life. Every press conference feels like a battle because he’s lost the respect he has a year ago.
Having lost authority, one of the most confident, decisive coaches in the history of football is no longer his own man. He’s affected by the FA, the press, the politics of the situation he now finds himself in. So much so that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
He’s making bad decisions all the time.
Without Glen Johnson, he put Phil Jagielka at right back !!!!!
That was unbelievable. I was amazed that he made that choice. It was unreal : Capello has become a pleaser ! He’s now a softie who doesn’t want to drop Jagielka, a 28-year old new boy, because he’s played well for him.
That colossal own-goal put England 1-0 down before we started. Jagielka is not a right back and could not play any part in the game. You experiment in friendlies but you never put square pegs in round holes if you have a fit right back available. It doesn’t matter whether Capello likes or trusts Micah Richards. Richards should have started, not Jagielka.
In the 0-0 draw against Montenegro, and against France, England started slowly, carefully, passing the ball around sideways and backwards in their own half. They obeyed his instructions to keep the ball.
But they didn’t press, didn’t generate momentum, didn’t lift the crowd. Our off-the ball-play was non-existent.
In the end, ITV were not televising football, they were screening desperation. A team’s desperation, a manager’s desperation. Capello looked helpless and at the end of his tether.
When the ITV highlights guy asked reporters for their verdicts, Henry Winter said : England and Capello are locked in a loveless marriage.
I don’t really reckon it’s gone that far, I just think Fabio Capello has lost his nerve. He’s lost his cojones. He’s been blown off course by a traumatic World Cup and he realises we don’t have great players or good young ones.
One good thing : Andy Carroll played well on his debut.
I remember a lot of debuts, good and bad, from my 20 years in the Wembley press box. By far the worst debut I saw came in the Umbro Cup, a year before Euro 96, when England hosted Sweden, Brazil and Japan.
Venables gave four players their debuts against Japan: Gary Neville, Stan Collymore, David Unsworth and John Scales.
Darren Anderton, one of my favourite players, scored England’s first goal, and David Platt got a header near the end and we won 2-1. Stan showed us how mentally strong he was. He went out in a shirt with Three Lions on it and stood there, terrified, paralysed, lost, not knowing why he was there. He panicked. Complete lack of moral fibre.
Of course, it’s very rare that you remember somebody for playing very badly. You almost always forget a player who plays badly but I remember Stan Collymore against Japan because it was something I had never seen before and knew I would never see again. I saw new England players struggle, often. But I never saw anybody else freeze completely.
Big Andy Carroll didn’t do a Collymore. Decent on the deck, improving rapidly, Carroll could be a player for England in the next two years. I like him.
Greengrocer John implored me to back both teams to score and at 7.57 p.m I remembered his tip and flew upstairs to place that bet. By 8.20 pm I knew England could not score except from a set-piece and we were not getting many of those because Blanc’s promising new French outfit would not give us the ball.Then Peter Crouch came on and the corner arrived and Crouch volleyed home in the 86th minute.
Thanks, Peter! Gerry Francis was right about you. 22 goals for England in 42 games isn’t bad.
Bottom line, Fabio Capello doesn’t know whether to play international football or Premier League football.
He’s clearly caught between the two. He has to choose.
PS
Arsenal -Spurs preview this afternoon. And tomorrow morning.