How Strong is Fabio Capello?

Don

With retirement already penciled in for 2012 after the European Championships, Fabio Capello’s looking forward to his pipe and slippers, but there’s still work to be done.

Beside the basic task of qualifying for and performing well in the tournament, the Italian has to discern which England team will get them there: the invigorated, youthful XI that stomped Bulgaria and grabbed a great result in Switzerland, or the good old boys?

It seems like a no-brainer, but we’ve followed English soccer long enough to know that the media’s never above mudslinging or applying insane pressure to those men brave or foolish enough to manage the Three Lions, and when the entitled veteran trio of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, and Frank Lampard return to the fray, will they just waltz back into the starting lineup as if nothing ever happened?

And, if we’re being honest, should they?

Like the England gig was ever going to give Capello a gentle segue into retired life.

I’ve greatly enjoyed watching England this weekend, and while I’m not buying the hype of it translating to trophy-lifting success, it’s been encouraging to see different players being given a chance to perform. Without the aged legs of Ferdinand and Terry at the back, we’ve seen Gary Cahill, Joleon Lescott, and Phil Jagielka all get playing time, showcasing their talents: poise (Cahill), strength (Lescott), and positioning (Jagielka), all of which the elder pair have begun to lose rapidly over the last season or two.

While the argument of “not being experienced at the international level” is the usual justification for keeping the veterans in the lineup, it’s patently clear that facing Bulgaria at Wembley is not some universe alternate from traveling to Sunderland or Stoke, and as one would expect, the younger players have thrived at the back.

It’s not just center-backs, either: Hart’s clearly ready to own the #1 spot, Walcott showed his confidence and pace on the right until getting hurt, Defoe was finally paired with Rooney (enough of this target man guff that failed so miserably this summer), and both Adam Johnson and James Milner belong in the midfield.

So how will Capello handle the others when they return to the fray? One wonders what The Sun will have to say; it was their paper that castigated Capello for not picking Jack Wilshere, and yet, the footballing culture in England demands that the Beckhams and Scholeses get their opportunities to keep playing for England if they’re able.

The inability to move on from one footballing class to the next means that at every major tournament, the England team is split down generational lines, with promising youth cast to the sideline at the last second so guys like Shaun Wright-Phillips and Emile Heskey can enjoy another free holiday with a bit of soccer thrown in for good measure.

Like our tactics, the English national team appears to be encased in amber. Such is our fondness for the past—for anyone counting, 1966 keeps getting further and further away—that we seem to crave seniority on the international stage, as if it’s the intangible that pushes us to victory.

And yet, it doesn’t. Notice how teams ran rings around the tired English legs in South Africa. Germany seem to be suffering no ill effects from having cast off the elders that fell in the 2006 semi-finals, while Argentina and Spain have refreshed their squads and integrated younger players smoothly. Bert van Marwijk brought several youngsters to South Africa… meanwhile, jolly old England brought half their lackluster 2006 collective to the World Cup, with 11 players making repeat appearances (arguably, it would have been more had Beckham and Ferdinand not suffered injuries in the months prior to the final squad selection).

To make matters worse, several of the 11—Peter Crouch, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Jamie Carragher—had done precious little in 2009-10 to merit inclusion, yet were picked simply for lack of anyone else.

This is more than all the other big European/South American superpowers (France and Germany brought just 6 from 2006, Brazil and Italy just 8), who have learned of the importance of bringing youth through consistently and not just waiting for injuries to established players before making such transitions. Granted, France and Italy failed in 2010, but their problems were less to do with squad than with other bigger concerns.

So here is where the hard work lies for Capello, in blocking out the media pressure and endless blather from Sky Sports News to keep selecting an exciting, dynamic England XI that looks light years beyond the weary side that trudged through the World Cup.

Capello was strong enough to depose John Terry after his revelations, though I felt it a solid decision, not because England captaincy holds some moral imperative, but because the armband elsewhere removed some pressure and scrutiny from the squad as a whole.

Steven Gerrard has shone in central midfield with the captain’s role—irritatingly for me, he’s been better for England than for Liverpool recently—but the return of Frank Lampard will force that age-old problem of playing the two in some kind of unified midfield. Gerrard doesn’t work on the left, but neither can function as a tandem in the middle, playing essentially the same role. If you can’t wedge them all in together, who do you stick with, and who do you request to play a reduced role off the bench?

With Terry and Ferdinand, they’ll be quick to play the media game of being all about the team and doing whatever’s best, but you can bet that the Chelsea skipper will not hesitate to apply pressure behind closed-doors, as evidenced by his botched attempts at mutiny in South Africa.

So what will Fabio do? Will he take the road traveled by Cesare Prandelli in immediately ridding the squad of its 30+ element and allowing exiled players like Antonio Cassano assert themselves on the Azzurri? Will he follow Laurent Blanc in punishing dissenters and taking on the hard work of asserting a new-look side, new shape, and new tactics that play to his players’ strengths, regardless of recent results? Or will he mimic Jogi Low, who has appeased Michael Ballack by assuring him that the armband’s waiting for him when he’s back in form, despite the fact that the side’s much better without him?

Maybe I’m reading into this too much, and those three players I mentioned will see that the team is running smoothly in their absence and will be selfless in their return to the fray. However, we know better than that when it comes to soccer. They all want the glory, the money, the success, and to be instrumental in their teams. As such, Fabio might be closing in on retirement, but he must show (and soon) that he’s not there just yet.