Stop playing with fear, Capello cracks the whip on England's underperformers

The England coach, who demanded that they show respect to referees during a team meeting last night, was so stunned by the quality of the football at London Colney's training ground ahead of tomorrow's friendly against France that he halted the session.

"Why can't you play like this for your country?" he asked them. "As soon as you play in front of 80,000 people you play with fear. Why can you play like this in training and not in a match situation?"

Defender John Terry was among those to witness Capello's outburst and yesterday David Beckham suggested that the Chelsea skipper would regain the England captain's armband from Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

But, as usual, Capello is keeping his players guessing and one insider last night insisted that there are still "three possible candidates" for the job against the French in Paris.

The training session would, however, have left Terry's Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard sweating on his place.

While those players who took part in Sunday's Premier League matches were involved in only part of the session, Capello organised a side that had Gareth Barry and Owen Hargreaves in midfield, with Gerrard positioned behind Wayne Rooney and Joe Cole and David Bentley on the flanks.

In defence, Glen Johnson was to the right of Rio Ferdinand, Terry and Ashley Cole.