Posted by Kevin McCarra Tuesday 8 September 2009 00.10 BST The Guardian
Despite appearances the Italian head coach has never been one to impose his style on a team
Fabio Capello shouts instructions during the friendly against Slovenia. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
It is premature to see Slaven Bilic as a figure of fun. Not even the 4-1 victory in Zagreb a year ago could completely overwrite memories of the defeats by Croatia that kept England out of Euro 2008. Bilic is smart but his ingenuity has become tortuous now that it is his side undergoing stress.
His work with Croatia over the past three years has been a patriotic commitment rather than a career move. Bilic may therefore have had a contrast in mind when he spoke about his opposite number in tomorrow's World Cup qualifier. The Group Six leaders, he alleged, "are missing some Englishness" under Fabio Capello. This opinion was reinforced by the report he received on the 2-1 win over Slovenia.
"My assistant Goran Vucevic," said Bilic yesterday, "informed me England played as always under Capello. That means tough and disciplined. They play their own game, with a distinguished style, not allowing the opposition to spread their wings. Capello brought something they lacked, but they have lost that well-known 'creative mess'."
The instant reaction is to assume that Bilic pines for Steve McClaren, the manager whose team came from 2-0 down to equalise but still lost to Croatia at Wembley in 2007. That was a mess all right, creative or otherwise. Frank Lampard, who has known Bilic since their days in the West Ham squad, interprets these observations as an effort to distract England.
"He's very intelligent, almost in the way Mourinho was at Chelsea," said Lampard. "He's always thinking of any little edge he can get on the other team." Bilic is mistaken if he truly believes that Capello has been trying to impose a wholly alien style on England. The Italian has never really been an ideologue, no matter how dictatorial his body language might be.
Capello has won La Liga twice with Real Madrid. In 1997 he did so with a side that scored a creditable 85 goals. Ten years later, he landed the title again for Real, but with 19 goals fewer, and was sacked for the insufferable monotony of the football. The difference lay in the respective squads, which were largely assembled by the sporting director.
Pragmatists are not necessarily dull. Capello will do whatever makes sense and that could encompass the incandescent football of Milan when they overwhelmed Barcelona 4-0 in the 1994 European Cup final. With England, he has restored order, but he has also tried to accommodate the forthright traits of the game in this country.
The total of 26 goals to date in the qualifiers is far greater than any other side in Europe. That statistic may not tell us anything much about what the future holds in matches of a different calibre at the World Cup finals, but it shows Capello going with the tumultuous flow of English football. His clean sheets in the World Cup have been restricted to games with Andorra and Kazakhstan. He does get exasperated by the lapses and his impact has been at its weakest in the defence. Micah Richards was immediately axed when Capello took over as proof that there was no room for callow right-backs in his regime.
The 21-year-old ought not to despair, particularly if he is galvanised by the rise of Manchester City. Glen Johnson is currently the England right-back, but the post must be under review. Like any international manager, Capello can count himself a prisoner of circumstance. He is confined to players with the correct birthplace or bloodline and, ultimately, his achievements may be restricted by them.
Rather than being the imperious character of legend, he continues to scramble for answers. The goalkeeper Robert Green, for instance, was not especially reassuring against Slovenia and the challenger Ben Foster could yet wind up back on the bench at Old Trafford if Edwin van der Sar's know-how should seem beguiling to Manchester United when he is fit again. No wonder Capello keeps David James in mind. That Bilic remark about the loss of spontaneity, the "creative mess" of yore, is exactly wrong. There is improvisation and it is the pragmatic aspect of England's game that has to be pondered. Lampard, for instance, is ready to sit deep beside Gareth Barry, but no one yet speaks of them as a real partnership.
The national team could barely have a better manager. Given his limited time with the squad, however, it is Capello, rather than his players, who has had to adapt most.
Despite appearances the Italian head coach has never been one to impose his style on a team
Fabio Capello shouts instructions during the friendly against Slovenia. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
It is premature to see Slaven Bilic as a figure of fun. Not even the 4-1 victory in Zagreb a year ago could completely overwrite memories of the defeats by Croatia that kept England out of Euro 2008. Bilic is smart but his ingenuity has become tortuous now that it is his side undergoing stress.
His work with Croatia over the past three years has been a patriotic commitment rather than a career move. Bilic may therefore have had a contrast in mind when he spoke about his opposite number in tomorrow's World Cup qualifier. The Group Six leaders, he alleged, "are missing some Englishness" under Fabio Capello. This opinion was reinforced by the report he received on the 2-1 win over Slovenia.
"My assistant Goran Vucevic," said Bilic yesterday, "informed me England played as always under Capello. That means tough and disciplined. They play their own game, with a distinguished style, not allowing the opposition to spread their wings. Capello brought something they lacked, but they have lost that well-known 'creative mess'."
The instant reaction is to assume that Bilic pines for Steve McClaren, the manager whose team came from 2-0 down to equalise but still lost to Croatia at Wembley in 2007. That was a mess all right, creative or otherwise. Frank Lampard, who has known Bilic since their days in the West Ham squad, interprets these observations as an effort to distract England.
"He's very intelligent, almost in the way Mourinho was at Chelsea," said Lampard. "He's always thinking of any little edge he can get on the other team." Bilic is mistaken if he truly believes that Capello has been trying to impose a wholly alien style on England. The Italian has never really been an ideologue, no matter how dictatorial his body language might be.
Capello has won La Liga twice with Real Madrid. In 1997 he did so with a side that scored a creditable 85 goals. Ten years later, he landed the title again for Real, but with 19 goals fewer, and was sacked for the insufferable monotony of the football. The difference lay in the respective squads, which were largely assembled by the sporting director.
Pragmatists are not necessarily dull. Capello will do whatever makes sense and that could encompass the incandescent football of Milan when they overwhelmed Barcelona 4-0 in the 1994 European Cup final. With England, he has restored order, but he has also tried to accommodate the forthright traits of the game in this country.
The total of 26 goals to date in the qualifiers is far greater than any other side in Europe. That statistic may not tell us anything much about what the future holds in matches of a different calibre at the World Cup finals, but it shows Capello going with the tumultuous flow of English football. His clean sheets in the World Cup have been restricted to games with Andorra and Kazakhstan. He does get exasperated by the lapses and his impact has been at its weakest in the defence. Micah Richards was immediately axed when Capello took over as proof that there was no room for callow right-backs in his regime.
The 21-year-old ought not to despair, particularly if he is galvanised by the rise of Manchester City. Glen Johnson is currently the England right-back, but the post must be under review. Like any international manager, Capello can count himself a prisoner of circumstance. He is confined to players with the correct birthplace or bloodline and, ultimately, his achievements may be restricted by them.
Rather than being the imperious character of legend, he continues to scramble for answers. The goalkeeper Robert Green, for instance, was not especially reassuring against Slovenia and the challenger Ben Foster could yet wind up back on the bench at Old Trafford if Edwin van der Sar's know-how should seem beguiling to Manchester United when he is fit again. No wonder Capello keeps David James in mind. That Bilic remark about the loss of spontaneity, the "creative mess" of yore, is exactly wrong. There is improvisation and it is the pragmatic aspect of England's game that has to be pondered. Lampard, for instance, is ready to sit deep beside Gareth Barry, but no one yet speaks of them as a real partnership.
The national team could barely have a better manager. Given his limited time with the squad, however, it is Capello, rather than his players, who has had to adapt most.
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