Posts Tagged ‘Consecutive Victory’

Capello’s authority is paying dividends

England’s coach comes across as stern and cool but the players like him and it shows in their results

A former Soviet republic with a hardline president was an ideal setting to observe Fabio Capello’s authoritarian style of leadership and the lasting impression from England’s faltering first 40 minutes in Kazakhstan is of managerial fury.

Capello’s gesticulations are imported performance art. The gushes of anger through a generally clenched body yield a rich array of arm-throwing gestures that leave his players in no doubt of his displeasure. By the end England had cruised to a sixth consecutive victory towards qualifying for next year’s South Africa World Cup but not before Capello had bullied a team whose weariness was more forgivable than their positional indiscipline.

The England coach had told his team to “expect” a Kazakh assault fuelled by patriotic fervour. John Terry’s men confessed to having slept badly in Almaty on account of a five-hour time-lag. The Kazakh dervish was their unwanted alarm call. It found Glen Johnson (right-back) dozing and Ashley Cole (left-back) sleepwalking too far forward when the manager expected him to be in defensive lock-down mode. Gareth Barry was evidently dreaming of Manchester City. Capello let them all know it with a succession of convulsions that threatened to detach his hands from his wrists.

So fierce was his rebuke to Cole that “Cashley” fired a few words back at the bench, the first known case of an England player defying the bespectacled martinet. The coach’s point was that England should weather Kazakhstan’s enthusiasm from sound defensive positions and then assume control of the game. Instead they appeared intent on fighting fire with fire from an advanced position and were surrendering possession far too frequently for an Italian’s taste.

“In the first half I was disappointed with the position of some of our players. It was impossible to get my message across,” Capello reported. On the surface these fiery exchanges between an aficionado of order and a team who have been specialists in chaos in tournaments will leave no mark in the annals of long-haul travel. It did, though, point to Capello’s enduring belief that English players cannot always be trusted to apply strong tactical thinking to high-pressure moments. His brand of supervision is the polar opposite of that practised by Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren.

Laissez-faire has been scratched out of his dictionary. It was the gravy smell of Football Association largesse that drew him to London but he is not the sort to scoop up easy money without giving effort in return. England have now struck 20 times in six qualifiers. Wayne Rooney, who was often semi-detached under the old regime, has scored eight in six outings and has become one of Capello’s lieutenants on the field. When Shaun Wright-Phillips was midway through a cameo of extraordinary carelessness, in the second-half, it was Rooney who applied the flamethrower of collective disgust.

“The manager is a strong manager and none of us want to let him down,” said Rooney before the game. This is one of the more significant statements of Capello’s reign and not just because Rooney is finally finding his natural voice (his declaration last week that the middle is his best position was unusually bold, given that it was bound to be painted as a memo to Sir Alex Ferguson). Jonny Wilkinson used to say the same about Martin Johnson when English rugby was in its pomp. Some players, especially English ones, prefer to be told what to do, provided the results suggest the dictator is blessed with wisdom as well as strength.

Described as “surly” and uncommunicative by Chelsea’s Carlo Ancelotti last week, Capello certainly conforms to a model of loftiness that most of the Champions League regulars seem to like. They know he has unlocked the potential of this England squad by finding a coherent tactical shape and imposing the more professional tone of a big club striding into a major Champions League tie.

But he is colder, more brutal, in his touchline urgings than even Rafa Benítez. Cole’s indignant reaction to one of his barrages reminded us that these one-man corporations are not infinitely receptive to being treated as unruly toddlers. It is natural for Capello to stop a training session to berate his players or grab one by the shoulders to illustrate a point. For FA grandees this has become something of spectator sport.

The enemy now, after England have increased their haul to 21 points, against Andorra on Wednesday, is complacency in the home games with Croatia and Belarus and the visit to Ukraine. Capello’s eruptions in Almaty say he is alive to this risk. He is the jockey who knows he is on a horse that has to be flogged all the way to the line.

Premier League: Arsenal may be the losers as Ferguson talks up Aston Villa’s challenge

Manchester United's record against Aston Villa is so formidable that today's trip to Villa Park will hold little fear for Sir Alex Ferguson. But the most successful manager in the business has added his name to Villa's growing list of admirers, predicting that Martin O'Neill's side had a genuine chance of forcing their way into the previously impregnable group of four clubs at the top of the Premier League.

Despite the absence of Dimitar Berbatov and lingering concerns about the fitness of Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, United will be looking for a 12th consecutive victory against Villa when they travel to a ground they have found generous, to say the least, over the years.

When Gabriel Agbonlahor scored in the corresponding fixture last season, it was the first time a Villa player had managed a home goal against United for six years. True to form, the game finished in a 4-1 away victory, consolidating United's status as Villa's bogey team, with 23 victories against them since the formation of the Premier League 16 years ago.

Ferguson, nonetheless, believes O'Neill's players are the only serious challengers to the quartet of clubs that have dominated English football over the last decade, a view that has been given further credence by Villa's 2-0 victory at Arsenal last weekend.

"Villa have the capability of breaking into the top four," the United manager said. "I think they could do that. At the moment they are level with Arsenal and only a point behind us. It's a good position to be in. Their form at Arsenal last week was outstanding and we have to recognise them as an improving side."

The credit, said Ferguson, went to O'Neill, one of the managers who have been tipped to replace him at Old Trafford. "Martin has done a fantastic job," he added. "He is one of the best managers in the game, no question about that. The only way you can judge managers is how they have proved themselves over a long period and when you look at the job Martin did at Leicester, at Celtic and now at Villa, he is obviously a top manager."

If Villa are to sustain a challenge to the big four then Arsenal, on current form, look the most vulnerable. United lost at the Emirates a fortnight ago but Ferguson believes it was an injustice. "We've recognised a weakness in ourselves, making all those chances against Arsenal and not taking any," he said. "We were left a bit embarrassed. It was a game we should have had a point from, if not all three."

Ferguson is calling on his front players to be more ruthless, pointing out that "at the moment, Chelsea are well ahead of us in terms of scoring goals", and will be waiting anxiously to see whether Rooney passes a fitness test on the calf injury that ruled him out of England's midweek win over Germany.

Ferdinand also needs a late check-up because he is still troubled by a back injury while Berbatov misses out after picking up a hamstring strain in Bulgaria's 6-1 defeat to Serbia. "He will definitely miss the Villarreal [Champions League] game on Tuesday too," Ferguson said. "But there is a slight chance he may be available for Manchester City next weekend."

Wes Brown has not played in nearly a month because of an ankle injury and Ferguson confirmed the defender had undergone surgery. "There's no timescale but I would have thought [he will miss] four to five weeks, which is disappointing."

United's hold over Villa

13 Games since Aston Villa avoided defeat against Manchester United.

8 United Premier League goals conceded by Villa last season.

1995 The year when Villa last beat United in the league.

25 League fixtures against United since that 3-1 victory.

7 Villa goals in those 25 matches.

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