Fabio has to make the best of limited choice

 Add your view

Fabio Capello clearly has his own ideas and two decades of success as well as a £6million salary would suggest most of them are good.

But Capello appears to have seen something in Paris on Wednesday night that even his players struggled to recognise. He saw 'progress' and enough evidence to convince himself that the tactics he employed should be revisited.

Scroll down for more

He said he thought Wayne Rooney could become England's Fernando Torres and continue as a lone striker. He said Steven Gerrard could become England's answer to Zinedine Zidane. He even dared argue that David Beckham was a decent alternative to Cristiano Ronaldo.

He said so in response to the suggestion that Rooney and Gerrard experienced difficulties against France because they did not have the support they enjoy when they perform the same roles for Manchester United and Liverpool.

And he refused to accept an opposing view. 'Then you were obviously watching a different match to me,' he said without the slightest hint of self-doubt.

In the dressing room, however, there were others who seemed to disagree. When Michael Owen was asked to explain Capello's ideas, he shrugged his shoulders and laughed. 'You ask him,' he said. 'In terms of what he is trying to do, you ask him.'

Gerrard tried to be a little more diplomatic. 'I'm a central midfielder,' he said. 'I've played there all my life but I do feel as if I can cause problems in that (other) position. I can adapt to the role but I need more time.'

Then he was asked about Rooney. Gerrard said: 'Wayne has to adapt his game as well, because for me to get space in there and for it to work he has to play a lot higher and stretch the defence. I think that is why myself and Torres are having a lot of joy with Liverpool. He is so direct. But I've seen Wayne do the job for United. He destroyed us last weekend with his direct running.'

If Capello is determined to leave Rooney and Gerrard where they are for the games against the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago at the end of the season, it could be for one simple reason: a lack of alternatives.

Short of options as well as confidence, this England team are on their knees. There is no centre forward, no one who has yet emerged as the obvious successor to Beckham and, as a consequence, no pace on the flanks.

Steve McClaren talked about 'square pegs in square holes' but Capello might now believe that forcing round pegs into square holes is the only way forward. As even Gerrard conceded, they might just have to be given more time to adapt.

Capello has already bemoaned a dearth of decent English players in the Barclays Premier League, and strikers with a true international pedigree are certainly hard to find.

He will look at Dean Ashton if the West Ham striker can stay fit, possibly allowing Rooney more freedom to roam while maintaining the shape the Italian favours.

However, Owen continues to stand alone as the only top-class goalscorer — a little harsh on Peter Crouch, perhaps, but true — and he remains some way off his best in a struggling Newcastle team.

So what is Capello to do? Persist with a system that failed so miserably against the French or try something different?

If he is still convinced that 4-2-3-1 is the best system for England, he should at least address the problem on the right flank and give Rooney someone who can offer him more support. The way Ronaldo does at United.

While Beckham should now be considered as nothing more than impact player who starts on the bench at best, Capello has to take his pick from the right-sided players who possess the kind of pace that was so lacking at the Stade de France.

Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Shaun Wright-Phillips have the potential to offer such a dimension to the England team and it is now up to Capello to identify the best candidate.

Even then, however, Capello should consider a more radical shake-up and abandon his penchant for playing two defensive midfielders.

Owen Hargreaves and Gareth Barry did well as a partnership but the best way to provide Rooney with the support he needs would be a 4-3-3 formation that allows Joe Cole and the right-sided player to push further forward.

It is a system that has been successfully adopted by United and Chelsea and one that would probably suit England's players more than a formation that Capello has favoured in his club career.

When England are so tentative going forward, two holding midfielders is the last thing they need. Better, surely, to simply let Hargreaves protect the back four and recall the more offensively-minded Frank Lampard. Capello does not see a future for Lampard and Gerrard as a partnership — and he is right. They have never looked comfortable together.

But deploying them either side of Hargreaves or Gareth Barry solves the problem immediately and allows both Lampard and Gerrard to do what they do best: make those runs from deep which produce so many goals.

For Capello, it is of course early days and more experiments will follow. Perhaps we will see Ashton line up alongside Rooney against the Americans. Perhaps we could even see Walcott given an opportunity to utilise his pace.

Capello will do whatever he considers necessary, whether the players concerned like it or not.

On Wednesday night he did not hesitate to divert some of the blame for the penalty away from David James and on to John Terry. 'The first mistake was to let the ball reach Anelka,' said Capello. 'If anything, that was the problem, not what happened afterwards.'

Right now, the task of turning an England team who have just failed to qualify for the European Championship into a side even capable of qualifying for the next World Cup is a daunting one. And Capello knows it. Not least because the options available to him are so limited.

• Post this story to:
• Digg
• Reddit
• Del.icio.us
• Facebook

What is this?

Email a friend

Print this page

Receive our newsletter