Quote:
Originally Posted by RUnited
I think Capello is looking at this in a far more simple way.
Park the bus in front of the goal. Keep the clean sheet and worry about the win later.
I think England's got some fantastic defenders and his job is already half there.
You saw the game against France and you could see immediately that Capello wanted to keep the clean sheet. Aside from the penalty, they didn't look like losing another goal which is probably the positive Capello saw coming out of the game.
France and Italy have shown that defence can bring championships and Capello is probably going to try knocking on that door.
If they improved on their penalty taking skills I think they have a chance of taking many top teams to extra time, nicking those odd wins England seemed to have lost out on all these years.
You look at their penalty record and you would have thunk they were part time players in that respect.
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I agree with you that England has some of the finest defenders in the world, probably the finest defense in Europe. Stating that, keeping clean sheets is more then having the best defenders and instructing them to keep tight at the back. The Italians may have shite defenders (like Materazzi for example) but would still look solid at the back because they are groomed since their birth to play that way. And thats just the peak of the iceberg. All players in their national side are syncronised to that game with every player doing his role perfectly. That is not because they are some kind of Gods (in fact there were times where thats fecked them a bit expecially during the Maldini/Trapattoni era) but only because they were groomed to play to that system from youth level. Now can imagine Rooney turning from the player he is to a lazy cunt who waits patiently upfront and convert one chance into a goal? Because that is exactly what the main striker (ie punta) does in the Italian system.
In my opinion Capello has two options. He can either change the English style of game completely which is a massive task that will take years or else he can do a Fergie/Wenger and tweak the continental system to highlight the English style of game. Both tasks require time and are difficult to achieve. Thats why I would have preferred an EPL based foreign manager rather then Capello.