Fabio Capello’s England Are a Relic From a Bygone Footballing Era

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: October 13, 2010

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Football is a constantly improving and evolving sport but Fabio Capello's England are not; tactically, Capello's team look like a relic from a bygone era.

While other sides are adopting fluid, flexible formations, the English national team are still clinging to a hopelessly outdated system.

Very few top class teams in the world are persevering with the old fashioned 4-4-2 formation with two conventional wingers; Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona all play variations on the theme of 4-3-3, while Manchester United and Real Madrid fluctuate between the two formations but seem to play better football when they employ three central midfielders.

Capello feels that 4-4-2 is the best system for England despite a series of results to the contrary. While top teams all over the world are coming to the realization that they need three central midfielders in order to compete in the modern game, England are still employing the same tactics Terry Venables used at Euro '96.

The England manager obviously believes that the only way his side can win matches is to play a big centre forward with a couple of wingers to supply ammunition to him, despite the fact that there is no recent precedent for a side feeding their front men a strict diet of long balls and crosses to enjoy success at an elite level.

In the top tier of English club football, this approach is becoming increasingly antiquated, yet the national team seems determined to embrace it; the paucity of England's ambition was perfectly demonstrated by Capello's first substitution.

With 20 minutes to go and his side persistently unable to forge any clear cut openings, the England manager decided to bring off one "big man" striker, Peter Crouch, and replace him with another "big man" striker, Kevin Davies.

Plan A was quite conspicuously not working so Capello's solution was to try plan A again, only this time with slightly different personnel.
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Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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