After yesterday’s disappointing second round exit to Germany manager Fabio Capello could see his reign as England manager coming to an end in the next few days. However despite England’s poor World Cup campaign sacking Capello is not the answer.
England walked off the pitch humiliated and dejected following their 4-1 defeat to bitter rivals Germany, England were outplayed in every department and apart from a 10 minute spell in each half didn’t really look threatening at all. The expectation on Capello was that the team reach the semi-finals at least, and with the personnel at his disposal it should have been an achievable task. However just like at ever tournament England once again flattered to deceive, but this time around it seems to feel more heartbreaking. As there was an impression that finally with someone like Capello at the helm England had the world class manager they’ve been lacking to complement the players.
However it is quite simply the players who should shoulder most of the blame for this World Cup, Wayne Rooney didn’t turn up at all after a great season with Manchester United much was expected of him and he didn’t deliver. Aaron Lennon was very disappointing on the right hand side, his replacement James Milner was better putting in a lot of dangerous crosses but still should have made more of an impact. Steven Gerrard was fairly decent but it’s clear he isn’t the right captain for England as his leadership skills were nowhere to be seen on the pitch, Frank Lampard was good against Germany but missing for the other games and the opposite can be said for Gareth Barry. The defence were woeful against Germany and had it not been for David James in goal the scoreline could have been a lot worse. Overall throughout the tournament the only players that come out of it with a shade of credit are James, Ashley Cole and Jermain Defoe.
Despite the poor performances of many individual players, as a team England only really played badly in two games against Algeria and Germany. In their opener against the USA the Americans proved to be very resolute and difficult to break down, they are a good side who have vastly improved and a point against them isn’t anything to be ashamed of. In the Slovenia game England should have won by at least by two goals and a third wouldn’t have been undeserved, however luck just deserted them on the day and they only won 1-0. Also against Germany although England were poor the Germans have unfairly not been given the credit they deserve for playing so well.
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Capello has shown that he can get England to play as they looked impressive in the World Cup qualifying campaign, topping their group and only suffering one defeat. This also included good performances particularly against a Croatia side that caused England many problems in their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Without a doubt Fabio Capello made mistakes at the finals by playing players out of position like Gerrard and not taking players who deserved to be there like Darren Bent. However Capello will have learnt from these mistakes and although it’s hard to think about it now, if you were offered England going out in the second round of the World Cup but winning the European Championships surely it would be worth it? The blame has been put on Capello all too quick by the media when these were the people who were praising his appointment saying that England have been needing a disciplinarian for a long-time. Now there are reports of player unrest it looks the media has decided to change its mind once again and side with the players.
Based on how powerful the English press can be it wouldn’t be surprising if they got their wish and Capello was indeed sacked from his job, but should that happen who is out there to replace him? The FA probably wouldn’t go with another foreigner and the only English managers who are close to being good enough are Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodsgon. Even then Redknapp and Hodgson are not as good as Capello and nothing about them suggests that they could do a better job than him, chopping and changing the manager now will only halt progress and would cost the FA money. It would be better to leave Capello in charge until his contract expires after Euro 2012 and see what happens at that tournament. Although it would be nice to win, if Capello couldn’t deliver it then a new manager can come in and have two years to work towards the big prize of the World Cup so it’s a win-win situation.
With all the experience Capello has on his CV it makes him one of the best managers in the world and if someone of his calibre can’t get England to perform then really who can? This simple logic should be the reason why he gets to keep his job, Capello can deliver success to England but people need to be patient and unfortunately as patience is hard to find in football nowadays it seems unlikely he will get the chance to atone for the World Cup.
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