England Post-Mortem #1 – Don Fabio

This blog has been dormant for some time now. That’s not to say that football hasn’t put me through the wringer in the meantime, it’s just that I haven’t really been able to summon up the strength to write about it. However, England’s recent Mangaung mishap brought the anger back in spades.

The humiliating defeat to Germany is one to be discussed like no other and the post-mortem is most likely to continue until we’re pulverised in Poland and usurped in Ukraine in 2012. We’ve surely now reached the final years of this media-driven ‘golden generation’ and we find ourselves boasting the same trophy haul as we started it with. The sad truth of the matter is that there isn’t even one single problem with this team or the general set-up that we could fix and move on from. With this in mind, this particular piece will be split up into 5 different articles looking at each particular aspect that contributes to England’s endless early exits. First up, we look at the most important man in the entire organisation, Fabio Capello.

It must be said at the start that there’s obviously no doubting his ability as a manager. His tenures in Milan, Roma, Juventus and Madrid have garnered a very respectable 8 league titles over 16 years. He’s boasted the respect of some of the greatest players all over the world and came highly recommended to Brian Barwick as he appointed him to the highest paid role in world football. There’s a world of difference between domestic management and international however, and it has to be asked whether Capello was ever really the right choice to take England forward.

The first question marks come when you consider that for all his league titles, Fabio has only won 1 round-based cup competition in his entire career, that being 16 years ago with Milan. Put into perspective, that’s approximately 1 cup success in 40 attempts. There’s little doubt that the Italian excels when he’s given the whole year to mould his teams to perfection, but he’s only likely to have these players under his control for a maximum of 10/12 weeks spread unevenly throughout each two year tournament rotation. This makes hammering home discipline and systems of play considerably harder, especially when you’re as tactically stubborn as Capello continues to be.

He announced pre-tournament that he was to pick his squad based on merit, not simply on names. However, this turned out to be a complete fabrication. David James, Matt Upson, Jamie Carragher, Emile Heskey, Michael Carrick and Shaun Wright-Phillips had all had sub-par seasons domestically but found themselves on the plane to South Africa. This left players such as Michael Dawson behind despite forcing his way to the Tottenham captaincy in a superb individual season. Also overlooked was in-form Adam Johnson and Villa’s Stewart Downing, seemingly the only two English left-footed left wingers in the country. Same applied for Darren Bent, the second highest scoring English Premier League striker for the second year running but no spot for him. Kevin Davies also watched on TV, the Bolton striker being of the same mould as Heskey but with 300% more goals. It seems as though the club for the boys is still very much in effect, contrary to Capello’s protestations.

This lack of form could be worked through with the right tactical decisions though, but this was another zero. For me, you’ve got to make the most of what you have at your disposal when you’re an international coach. Play to your player’s strengths, and in a short tournament you’ll be there or there abouts. This concept passed Fab by though it seems. Steven Gerrard has played almost everywhere for Liverpool except the left of midfield, but this is where he spent the majority of the World Cup for England. Wayne Rooney’s best spells for Manchester United this season came when he was played on his own up top, but this entire tournament saw him playing with a partner. This partner for half of it ended up being Jermaine Defoe, despite the fact that the pair of them average less than 0.2 goals a game when playing together.

All of this played out in a rigid, unwavering 4-4-2, a formation that many are now claiming is antiquated in the modern game. The entire country could see our strengths lay in midfield and that a 4-5-1 would incorporate all strengths, form levels and player preferences perfectly, however 4-4-2 remained. Even against Germany at a time in which England desperately needed a goal, Capello brought on striking relief in 0-goal Heskey but sacrificed Defoe, the only English striker to score in the tournament. A confusing move indeed that only served to alienate himself further from the fans.

In future, we’re probably just as well hiring a tactically-sound League 2 manager for £50k a year with all things considered. Thanks to the media and the inevitable FA interference, the squad mostly ends up picking itself as it is and the players usually find some way to ruin it for everyone before we’ve even kicked a ball. But that’s for another story…

If you like this, try reading Part Two or Part Three of the post-mortem.