Fabio Capello's journey through English football begins officially on Monday, when he starts work as manager of the national team, but the Italian has been using the same map for years. There is no reason to discard a guide that has led him to league titles with every club he has ever had under his command. It is not in his nature to follow an elaborate route.
In that regard there are parallels with Sven-Goran Eriksson. The Swede also replaced an English predecessor whose tenure had disintegrated into confusion. Kevin Keegan had admitted as much when resigning as soon as the 1-0 loss to Germany at Wembley was finished. Eriksson's task, then, was to restore organisation to the side and to develop the squad.
Capello's priorities are exactly the same. As with Eriksson, he is indifferent to aesthetic considerations and, in his most recent spell with Real Madrid, those who called for beautiful football were treated as if they were woolly-minded nostalgists. In fairness, Capello is not actually hostile to style and his Milan side's 4-0 rout of Barcelona in the 1994 European Cup final is the modern counterpart to Real Madrid's 7-3 trouncing of Eintracht Frankfurt 34 years earlier. There was never the slightest risk, though, that Capello would let himself go down in history as a showman.
A year before the spectacle against Barcelona, Milan had lost 1-0 to Marseille in the final of the competition. On that evening, Marcel Desailly was at centre-half for the winners. Milan then acquired him. The height, strength and skill of the Frenchman were prominent in the spree against Barcelona, with Desailly sparing a moment to curl a delicious fourth goal.
The manager is more likely to remember the sheer might of the footballer who helped make Milan such a juggernaut of a side. Twelve years later, Capello was embarking on his second stint with Real Madrid. Famously, he gave the president Ramón Calderón three names when announcing his demands in the transfer market: "Mahamadou Diarra, Mahamadou Diarra, Mahamadou Diarra." Around £18m was spent to prise a powerful midfielder from Lyon. Diarra's form was uneven, but he scored when Real won the league by fighting back to beat Real Mallorca.
The season before that Capello had bought Patrick Vieira, who helped Juventus retain the Serie A title, although they were stripped of it because of the match-fixing scandal. There is nothing enigmatic about Capello's line of thought. He has to get ready for next month's friendly with Switzerland and could well be at Villa Park for the visit of Manchester United in the FA Cup today. He probably hopes to find Owen Hargreaves or Michael Carrick, if not both, in action and on song.
It is no revolution to turn to such established individuals, but the duties of defensive midfielders will be more tightly defined in future. Capello would have been offended by the tumultuous character of the 3-2 loss to Croatia, when a stuffy night of stalemate was all that was required. Even when the score had been levelled at 2-2, Steve McClaren still would not bring on Hargreaves to bottle up the midfield. Capello will never perpetrate that type of blunder.
At times, the manager has shown a preference for 4-2-3-1, and a system of that sort might suit England. If there is a dearth of native centre-forwards then it is pragmatic to call for just one. Capello prized the physical presence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Inter and Ruud van Nistelrooy at Real Madrid. Some have therefore fancied that Dean Ashton, at a decidedly humbler level, could be considered, but first of all the West Ham striker will have to get back his form, his fitness and his place in the club's line-up. Capello will also recognise the case for Emile Heskey.
England need a greater range of choices in all areas. The identity of the goalkeeper is a sensitive topic. It would be hard to write off Scott Carson for a calamitous night against Croatia on his competitive debut for England. Capello may study him with interest in the Villa line-up this evening. Other goalkeepers, such as Rob Green, Joe Hart and Ben Foster, should the latter be fit and in action, will have to be assessed.
Under McClaren, England were befuddled by an outbreak of injuries. Capello has to accelerate the expansion of the group. It was not tolerable, for instance, to see Micah Richards as the single, feasible right-back while the veteran Gary Neville was a long-term absentee. Nedum Onuoha, for one, could press a claim. Richards might sometimes be needed in central defence. Sol Campbell no longer looks an alternative there for a game as high-paced as that with Croatia.
On the same basis, David Beckham cannot survive indefinitely and Capello will have to do better than to turn unthinkingly to Shaun Wright-Phillips. David Bentley and Ashley Young require more caps, with the exciting Gabriel Agbonlahor surely destined for an international debut shortly. Capello has no competitive games until next season and his priority is to leave the public viewing those World Cup qualifiers with confidence.
