Wembley are currently promoting an “England versus the Rest of the World’’ game, which might be an even contest if it were cycling but at football it resembles a massive mismatch.
The event, on Sept 7, is in fact a fundraiser for Unicef, with the illustrious likes of Alan Shearer reviving old rivalries with Peter Schmeichel. What Fabio Capello would give for a line-leading centre-forward of Shearer’s marauding class or an English answer to Schmeichel, that imposing Danish goalkeeper.
As sadly witnessed during the dire 2-2 draw with the superior Czechs on Wednesday, England’s present malaise is one-third a problem of personnel, with no dazzling targetman or goalkeeper available, one-third tactical miscalculation and one-third crisis in confidence.
Until the Football Association sort out their youth development system, Capello can do nothing about the dearth of decent No 9s or No 1s but the Italian can introduce some balance and belief into the side. The rush in certain quarters to clamp Capello into the public stock and provide crates of rotting vegetables for the enraged replica-shirted masses must be resisted; only after England’s trip to Croatia on Sept 10 can Capello be judged correctly. Hold the lynch mob. Capello’s lengthy CV deserves respect and a touch more patience.
The Czech captain, Tomas Ujfalusi, formerly of Fiorentina, encountered Capello sides in Serie A and describes the coach as a “genius strategist and psychologist and very charismatic’’. Most pressingly, England need this “genius strategist’’ to re-configure their midfield, a mess against Ujfalusi’s team.
One of English football’s Champions League managers believes that England’s midfielders do not lack technique, as many contend, simply “balance’’ in the way they are set up, although he is too mindful of the difficulties of Capello’s job to repeat such a critique in public.
One way to improve England’s balance would be to reposition Steven Gerrard from a left flank which feels like Siberia to the Scouser. England will struggle to impose themselves on opponents of substance unless Gerrard is deployed in the centre.
If he needs to test support for that theory, Capello has only to ask any England fan or consult any England player who does not hail from Frank Lampard’s Chelsea. If Gerrard is off the pace, and he has had some international shockers, then replace him with Lampard, an able understudy. But not the two together.
Gerrard cannot work with Lampard. Fact. Gerrard is better than Lampard. Fact. Ergo start just with Gerrard. Simple.
Harry Redknapp’s debut as a Setanta pundit on Wednesday was as entertaining as it was illuminating and his scathing verdict on Capello’s misuse of Gerrard deserves re-visiting. “We’ve produced one of the finest midfield players in the world in Steven Gerrard, he is a colossus,’’ the Portsmouth manager said. “We stick him on the left wing?! He’s not a winger. He has got to be in the middle of the park where he can influence the game. We are killing him.’’
Blithely dismissing Redknapp’s comments, Capello insisted Gerrard enjoyed a free role against the Czechs, one practised in training, but the supposed freedom came with serious restrictions because Gerrard inevitably assumed similar positions to Lampard. With David Beckham also pushing inside alongside Gerrard, Lampard and Gareth Barry, England’s centre looked cramped, chaotic and shapeless.
If there was one image Capello should take from the first half it was of Gerrard, centrally stationed, on the ball, looking up, spying an opportunity and threading a pass through to Jermain Defoe. If there was one fact that Capello should scribble into his moleskin notebook it is that Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are on the same wavelength as footballers and friends. He should build around these talented Scousers.
If Gerrard and Rooney are England’s creative heartbeat, as Capello encouragingly accepts, he should construct the right platform for them, which means Barry and Owen Hargreaves deployed as holding midfielders, allowing Gerrard to push and link with Rooney.
Capello suggested that Barry, the Aston Villa captain, had reasons for a below-par display against the Czechs. “At the moment the Liverpool [potential transfer] situation means he is not at his best,’’ Capello observed. Barry can be forgiven an off-game; he remains an important player for England.
To general consternation, Capello argued that there was “progress’’ against the Czechs. “They played for the first time without fear at Wembley,’’ said Capello of his players, adding that international football was more demanding than the Premier League or Champions League because “the level is higher’’, a debatable point.
What was not debatable was that Gerrard and Rooney, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand seem bereft of their club verve when on England duty. “The players are not recognisable from the ones we see in the Premier League every Saturday and Sunday,’’ Redknapp added “They don’t look the same players.
“If Steve McClaren had been in charge of that team there would have been uproar. Wembley would have gone barmy. What I think is the problem is you get people who play for their clubs and they are loved. They play for Chelsea, like Frank Lampard, and the fans idolise them.”
Redknapp added: “They come off here and they are booed by 70,000 people.
“Football’s like life, it’s about confidence. If you have no confidence it’s very difficult, they come out here and make a mistake and they know they’re going to get slaughtered at every opportunity and they just don’t perform.’’
At least when the perennially bubbly Joe Cole came on, he tried to make things happen. Ditto David Bentley. Unfortunately for Tottenham Hotspur’s new boy, Beckham’s place on England’s right seems set in stone, appropriately given old Goldenballs’ lack of acceleration.
“Beckham played not only because he can take set-pieces and free-kicks but because he plays well,’’ stressed Capello, sounding alarmingly like Sven-Goran Eriksson.
With 2010 World Cup qualification looming, the time for experimentation has gone and Beckham, the tried and rusted, will sadly keep out Bentley, the new and ambitious.
Waving away criticism, Capello remained upbeat, insisting: “I have a lot of confidence.’’ If only his players did. If only the fans did.
