Lately though, the threads at the edge of the Capello master plan have become frayed. Did it all start with the John Terry affair? Who knows! But various ideas from the Italian have not gone down so well recently, including the interesting proposal for the head coach himself to post ratings of his team on a public site. The FA did not approve. Then there has been the strung out debate of Capello's contract and the get-out clause it contained. But the most glaring of all problems seem to be that Capello is not certain who to pick or what formation to play. Maybe he is more certain than he lets on, but it would be interesting to know when exactly Rob Green was told he was the number one goalkeeper for the tournament (if he isn't, then it was an odd decision to play him yesterday). The problem I had when watching the England game, was the questions over every area of the pitch, and these aren't small questions, these are vital areas of the game which we are not confident in.
Let's start with the goalie. Joe Hart has been the form 'keeper this season, and should have played in the friendly against Egypt in March, and taken forward as the number one. The old adage of "good enough, old enough" should have been used here. Green and James have had tough club seasons, both behind defences which have struggled. Hart on the other hand has been quite superb in a Birmingham team finishing in the top half of the league. However, as Green played yesterday he should be kept in now, mistake or no mistake, otherwise his confidence will be truly shot.
If we move forward to the defending side of the game (without mentioning in too much detail that the first choice back 5 should have at least started the warm up games so they are as familiar with each other as possible), of course the injury to Rio was not ideal, but it displays our defensive frailties in which Ledley King is unfit, Carragher has no pace, and where Upson has fallen from number one reserve to completely out of the picture. Why Michael Dawson, hasn't been capped this season is beyond me. The form England defender, he also possess similar qualities to Rio, more so than King, Carragher and Upson do, and would have been the ideal player to slot in alongside Terry. Terry with King or Carragher did not look solid and exposed their lack of pace as a vulnerability.
Formation and midfield form the next part of my argument. Having stuck with the holding midfield player throughout qualifying, why not play one against the USA. Yes Barry is injured, but why not play Carrick? Or why not make the tactical change that was needed when the USA were constantly getting space between our midfield and back four? Why also play Milner when it was obvious he was not going to be at 100% due to illness? And then, why bring on SWP, who had a truly awful game? Joe Cole has been playing well and can play left midfield, he has done it on numerous occasions for club and country. Against stronger teams, we will be swamped in midfield. Please use Carrick or Barry against Algeria to strengthen the middle of the park, otherwise we will chase the game again and give to much space to the opposition. If that happens against Spain, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Germany, then we can kiss goodbye to this World Cup!
This moves nicely to the attacking threats we pose, and who will pose them? If you bring in Barry or Carrick as a holding player, keeping Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon, do you move Gerrard wide or play a wide player which would result in losing a striker? It has to be the latter. Whilst Heskey might win the long ball and lay it off, he doesn't get in the box enough, he doesn't finish the opportunities he has, and above all, he doesn't look confident that he can finish them off. No goals since February. First start since March. Was it the right call? Probably not.
So, Mr Capello, I ask of you, are you confident you took the right squad to start with? Are you confident you picked the best goalkeeper? Will you now stick with that 'keeper when he needs your backing most? Are you confident you played the right striker with Rooney yesterday? Are you confident you know your strongest formation? And finally, do you think that the indecision's that seem to be evident here have affected the build up to the tournament, with no-one sure of their place in the team or the system after all, it took you until ten days ago to settle on your squad. Should that time have been spent settling on your team instead? Mr Capello, you have two games in the next nine days to convince us.
Having dominated qualifying, you would have imagined we knew our team/squad/strengths/formations. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem so. Algeria on Friday is a big game. Win well, forgive and forget. Win badly/draw/lose, pressure is on!
