The Capello Project

With four victories and +12 goal difference, uncritical acceptance of the World Cup qualifier stats suggests that England are currently the best team in Europe. With a friendly win over Germany also in the bag, it’s about time we analysed just what Capello has done to turn around England’s form.

There is a discernible pattern to Capello’s approach and his favoured players also seem apparent. Capello seems to recognize that modern international teams require two deep-lying central midfielders, to deny opposition attacks space in front of the back four. He therefore generally fields a team with a reinforced midfield base: in the majority of the qualifiers it comprised Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry, with Lampard taking on a more restrained role than usual. This could leave a hole between midfield and attack, but Wayne Rooney often drops deep from attack to fill the gap. The emergence of Theo Walcott has been timely and his pace on the right flank also prevents England’s defensive platform from hindering attacking play. Despite his lack of goals, Heskey is first-choice centre forward as his physical presence and work-rate creates openings for those around him.

Essentially, apart from a brief dalliance with 4-3-3 against Kazakhstan, Capello favours 4-4-2 but with Rooney dropping deep it could be considered 4-4-1-1. Implicit within this model is a 4-2-3-1 approach which is just a tweak away. This latter approach was apparent against Belarus: in the second-half Gerrard moved infield to take up a position behind the striker, with Rooney moving to the left. It is perhaps the left-side of midfield that remains most unsettled. Gerrard started on the left against Belarus but was merely a nominal presence and had the right to stray from the touchline: this may have unbalanced the side and the team improved in the second period when Gerrard played more centrally. Joe Cole had previously established himself on the left, but injuries have curtailed his input recently. Stewart Downing is perhaps the most natural left-sider and he performed excellently in the friendly against Germany. Ashley Young is a further contender and his club form has been good, but he may not yet be an international starter.
 
Even when there is an apparent lack of symmetry to Capello’s sides, the players seem able to function as a unit. In the second-half against Belarus, Rooney took up position on the left, but could not be considered an orthodox left-midfielder. Despite this imbalance the team still performed very well in this half – although the parts were not fully aligned, the whole still functioned. And when balance was achieved in the Germany friendly, England played as well as they have done for years.

Whatever Capello is doing, it certainly seems to be working and England are currently playing with style and confidence. If they continue to improve they could be serious contenders for World Cup 2010.

Germany 1 England 2

As a test, this friendly in Berlin against a second-string Germany may not stand up to excessive scrutiny; but I don’t believe I’m resorting to hyperbole when I state that this was one of England’s most complete and satisfying displays from the last decade.

England displays are usually marked by stilted uncertainty, but this performance was both measured and incisive. There was a genuine balance and symmetry to the team with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stewart Downing offering natural width. Downing has previously looked as though he lacks a certain cutting edge; but he was perhaps man of the match in this game and looked like a confident, seasoned international. In addition Jermain Defoe and Gabriel Agbonhlahor provided pace up front, while Gareth Barry and Michael Carrick dominated central midfield. Perhaps it is a coincidence that England put in one of their most convincing recent performances when several big name players were absent. But perhaps not!

England deserved to win this game by more than a single goal. They were in control for significant swathes of the match, and it was only sporadically that Germany found room to attack (it took an elaborately contrived John Terry/Scott Carson clanger for Germany to find the net). It could actually be argued that this performance was more impressive than the 5-1 win back in 2001. Whilst it is difficult to knock such an emphatic win (in a competitive qualifying fixture) the 2001 game could actually have gone either way. If Deisler had put away a sitter in the first-half to make it 2-1 to Germany the complexion of the game would have been very different. The score was also inflated by two breakaway England goals late in the game. In this latest fixture, however, England dominated almost throughout and never took recourse to defending deep; so the fact that it almost finished 1-1 demonstrates the extent to which football can be a fickle mistress. England’s goals may have come from set-pieces but they could have had a couple of others, with substitute Darren Bent slipping in front of an open goal and Shaun Wright-Phillips hitting a post from long-range.