Capello cracks whip to free Three Lions

Posted Sunday, December 27, 2009 by The Independent

As with any winter sport, reviewing a calendar year carries a sense of unfinished business; all the more so with a World Cup to come. In choosing 100 heroes or villains from the past decade last week, this newspaper justifably placed Fabio Capello in the former category. Of vastly greater import for English football, however, is which classification he will merit in 12 months' time. Or seven months, to be precise, since by mid-July the manager's heroic status and the national game's standing will be up for revision.

What can be said about Capello and his team is that the signs from 2009 were broadly encouraging, success in the qualifying group having been confirmed with a 5-1 flourish against Croatia in September. He has clearly established a new discipline as well as successfully trying out variations on a favoured 4-2-3-1 formation best utilising the talents of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

Yet when the World Cup draw brought no more demanding a trio of opponents than the United States, Slovenia and Algeria, it was easy to forget that the international year had been book-ended by defeats against the real favourites next summer, Spain and Brazil. England went into the Brazil game (played, bizarrely, in the November heat of Qatar) with a dozen players unavailable which, according to point of view, mitigated the effect of a 1-0 loss or provided a reminder of how injuries undermined previous tournament finals.