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England’s evolution starts now for Capello
England's evolution starts now for Capello
Marc Fox
It would take the ultimate optimist to deep down believe that England could experience their 'Michael Ballack' moment following Wayne Rooney's suspension for the opening encounter of Euro 2012.
Clearly, there are distinct differences between the scenarios, with Ballack's injury while playing for Chelsea ahead of the World Cup in 2010 ruling him out of the entire tournament in South Africa, and Rooney only set to miss a maximum of two group games in Poland and Ukraine.
Yet, Fabio Capello, the England boss, is already taking like a manager getting ready for a touch of spring cleaning before the Euros start next June.
In the wake of the 2-2 draw in Podgorica that confirmed England's qualification place as well as Rooney's initial absence, Capello was already looking for alternatives in his forward line, confirming that the Manchester United striker would not be involved against world champions Spain at Wembley next month in order to allow for a period of experimentation.
"I want to test new players, a different style and a new different movement, something different,” Capello insisted. "We need to prepare the first 11 who will start the Euros.”
Tournament teams are an evolving species as we all know, with David Platt at Italy 1990 and Michael Owen at France 1998 to recent English cases in point.
History suggests that the make-up of the side that ensures qualification some nine months before is rarely those that get the nod for the opener.
A virtually full domestic season and a series of pre-competition warm-up matches invariably throw up a wildcard, not to mention the high possibility of injury ruling a key member out in the way Ballack's omission from Germany's squad for South Africa allowed Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil et al. to make such a huge impression and earn big money moves immediately after.
Aside from personnel changes, Capello's words also hint at further tinkering with his formation - or at least the approach, or mindset, that his players will take into the upcoming friendlies.
The Italian, following the debacle in South Africa, has earned plenty of plaudits for subtly altering his rigid insistence on 4-4-2 and injecting greater pace and invention into his starting sides during Euro 2012 qualifying.
England have looked immeasurably brighter with a five-man midfield including Rooney and the mobility of players such as Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Adam Johnson. Add Jack Wilshire and Steven Gerrard into the mix - two certainties to start the Euro 2012 opener if fit - and the central third of the field looks to have bulked considerably since South Africa.
However, the major concern might be that Capello feels the need to return to deploying a targetman a la Andy Carroll or Bobby Zamora at England's apex and a busy scamperer like Jermain Defoe or Daniel Sturridge in behind given Rooney's immediate absence from the national team set-up.
"I have got a lot of forwards at this moment, really good forwards, and I need to find the best solution,” said Capello.
"This was Andy's third or fourth time with us. Zamora is an interesting player and we need to see him play against some important teams. We will do that.
"It will be really interesting because two players I did not select [Defoe and Sturridge] are playing really well.”
© Marc Fox & Soccerphile.com
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