Is Fabio Capello turning out to be Steve McClaren II?

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the Day: “We are killing Gerrard. We have one of the finest midfielders in Steven Gerrard, he plays for Liverpool and he is like Roy of the Rovers. He shoots, he scores, he tackles. He is not a left midfielder. It is unbelievable. He has to be in the centre. That was one of the worst performances I have seen from an England team. What positives can you take from that? The second half was diabolical. They didn’t look like the same players who perform week in, week out in the Premier League. What are we doing to them? We keep chopping and changing managers and we don’t improve. I’ve not seen Fabio Capello teams play worse than that. The players did not perform.” - Harry Redknapp.

Runner-up: “I think tonight we took another step. I’m happy. I saw a lot of things which I had doubts on. I think we’ll be ready for the next game. I’m happy for the draw because the reaction to the team to the last minute was good. I think, also, that the first half we played with good football, good style, and created a lot of chances.” - Fabio Capello.

Today’s overview: Pick up any paper this morning and anger and abuse is hurled at Fabio Capello and England from every angle. With the England crowd booing the team off the pitch, last night’s dismal display against the Czech’s has ended Capello’s honeymoon period with the press.

Ian McGarry goes for the lowest blow, comparing Capello with McClaren saying “only the brolly was missing.” The McClaren comparison was also adopted by Kevin McCarra (”Steve McClaren might be compelled to suppress a smile”) and Sam Wallace (”it could have been a Steve McClaren tribute night at Wembley.”)

And the insults keep on coming…

Oliver Kay reports on Harry Redknapp’s assessment of England’s insipid performance, who publicly stated on TV that this “one of the worst performances I’ve seen from an England team,” Henry Winter claimed “England were so poor here that their sponsors took the unprecedented step of voting an opponent, Jan Polak, as man of the match,” while Jason Burt argues that “Fabio may not be a wally. But neither he nor his players were too clever last night.”

And then there is more…

Matt Lawton hurls a host of critical questions directly at Capello, including “What was he thinking when he celebrated wildly at the sight of the ball bouncing first off Petr Cech’s left foot and a Czech defender’s face before bouncing over the line? Skin saved? Embarrassment avoided?” Charlie Wyatt adds his negative voice to the masses saying “Fabio Capello lost the plot,” and Neil Custis mockingly writes “Joe Cole reckoned this week that England are as good as anything that competed at the Euros. Maybe he means on his PlayStation.”

Three players are singled out for particular features. Tom Dart handed the new England captain a lowly 4/10 in The Times saying, “to say [Terry] looked sluggish would be an insult to slugs.” On Wayne Rooney, David Hytner suggests “the sum total of the damage that Rooney inflicted in the final third was negligible.” Neil Ashton however defends Steven Gerarrd saying “Good ol’ Stevie G. Get him on the graveyard shift and let him get on with it.”

The papers have also been served a second story of the day with the announcement that Brian Barwick is leaving his post at the FA. Martin Samuel explains that “Barwick’s weakness was that he had no record as a stellar businessman… and he was not a stellar footballer.” Sam Wallace and Paul Joyce also add their voices to why Barwick has stepped aside.

Moving away from England, the Irish Independent reports on how Brazil have turned on Dunga following his side’s 3-0 hammering to Argentina. Michael Walker reports on the big transfer story of the day - Sunderland’s loan capture of Djibril Cisse. Matt Lawton claims that “Chelsea [will] seal Robinho deal after Kenyon makes Madrid trip.” And finally Charlie Wyatt reports that “Berbatov faces a furious Spurs backlash after we snapped him signing a Manchester United shirt.”

Cutting straight to the chase, The Sun’s Ian McGarry twists the knife in Capello’s back by serving him with the ultimate insult. “Only the brolly was missing — though Fabio Capello must have felt every inch the wally on the Wembley touchline last night… Watching England is just like the weather: Cold, wet and horribly predictable. This ‘warm-up’ against the Czechs poured more cold water on the optimistic notion that under Capello it would all be sunshine and light… And all the while Capello looked on in ignominy. Penny for his thoughts? That’ll be more like £5million a year actually. The FA paid Steve McClaren just £2.5m a season for cocking it up as badly as this.”

Kevin McCarra struggled to find any silver lining with England in his match report for the Guardian. “A stoppage-time equaliser by the substitute Joe Cole, from the muddle ensuing at a corner kick, was little comfort. Indeed, it emphasised a dependence on set-pieces as the first equaliser had come from the same source. The side never flowed… Steve McClaren might be compelled to suppress a smile at the confirmation that certain dilemmas are still around to bedevil his successor. Steven Gerrard was on the left, as he was against the US in May, but it does not suit him and Lampard was incapable of flourishing in the centre… England cannot afford to go on being so ungainly and disjointed. The 2010 World Cup qualifiers send England to Zagreb next month, where Croatia will be merciless if England are so inept again.”

Sam Wallace fails to sugar-coat his feelings in the Independent. “Just in case we were in any danger of getting carried away by Team GB’s heroics, Team Fabio reminded us last night what English sport looks like when the wheels really do come off. It could have been a Steve McClaren tribute night at Wembley: a wretched performance in the rain and booing on the final whistle from an England support who have had a gutful of insipid football. Fabio Capello applauded in delight when Joe Cole stole an undeserved equaliser for England in injury-time and the Italian’s reaction showed just how far his expectations have fallen in only five games. In less than a month, England will face Croatia in Zagreb in their second 2010 World Cup qualifier and on this evidence the manager is not just short of a winning formula – he does not even know his best team.”

In The Times, Oliver Kay reports on Harry Redknapp’s assessment of England’s insipid performance. “Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, said in his role as a television summariser that it was “one of the worst performances I’ve seen from an England team” and that Capello’s decision to deploy Steven Gerrard on the left-hand side of midfield was “killing” the Liverpool captain. Capello took issue with both of these comments, saying that, in his eyes, Gerrard had played as one of the two in a 4-3-2-1 formation behind Jermain Defoe… Redknapp had a point when, casting his mind over a coaching career in which the Italian has steered AC Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and others to great success, he ventured that “I haven’t seen Fabio Capello teams play worse than that”. Whatever his protestations, the England manager is finding it difficult to impose his beliefs and his philosophy on a group of players who lost their way under Sven-Göran Eriksson and lost the plot under McClaren.”

Henry Winter (Telegraph) went for the jugular with the opening lines of his match report. “England were so poor here that their sponsors took the unprecedented step of voting an opponent, Jan Polak, as man of the match. Fabio Capello’s players scrambled a late equaliser, Joe Cole forcing the ball in, but it could not mask a myriad failings and a flurry of boos accompanied England from the field.”

Independent scribe Jason Burt stops short of putting Fabio Capello on the same standing as Steve McClaren, but he comes mightily close. “There were, five games into his regime, more questions than answers. The David Beckham conundrum, badly at fault for one Czech goal and then the set-piece creator of England’s equaliser, the mix in midfield, who to play up front, the vain hope that one of those strikers might just spark… and the perennial underperformance for his country of Wayne Rooney. Even the defence creaked badly. Fabio may not be a wally. But neither he nor his players were too clever last night.”

The Daily Mail’s Matt Lawton hurls a host of critical questions at Capello. “What was England’s manager thinking when he said only Spain impressed him at the European Championship? What was he thinking when he then declared his side were every bit as gifted as Fernando Torres and his international colleagues? What was he thinking when he celebrated wildly at the sight of the ball bouncing first off Petr Cech’s left foot and a Czech defender’s face before bouncing over the line? Skin saved? Embarrassment avoided? Not quite, Fabio, because for all the apparent optimism expressed by both the manager and his players, England remain very much the team who failed to reach Euro 2008 and a team still searching for some much-needed confidence.”

The Sun’s Charlie Wyatt, under the headline “Wasters,” also lays into Capello. “Fabio Capello lost the plot, lost an ally and almost lost the game on another wretched night for English football.”

Fellow Sun hack, Neil Custis, offers his analysis of another poor England display. “There is no invention, precious little pace and the best chance of scoring remains the same — set-pieces from David Beckham or hoofed long balls… Joe Cole reckoned this week that England are as good as anything that competed at the Euros. Maybe he means on his PlayStation. In reality, we are nowhere near the top table of the international game… The fans gave their verdict when those left in a half-empty stadium booed the team off. It was all so horribly familiar.”

Along with Gareth Barry at the bottom of the barrel, Tom Dart handed new England captain a lowly 4/10 in The Times. “To say [Terry] looked sluggish would be an insult to slugs. Appeared unsteady on his feet on the wet ground, not for the first time in his life, and was twisted and turned by Baros at the heart of a defence that was far too easily discomfited by a side deploying a lone striker. For the first goal, he tugged Baros’s shirt, yet the Czech forward still turned him with ease and shot.”

Wayne Rooney’s performance was dissected by David Hytner (Guardian). “The player’s performance here at Wembley mirrored so many of those he has put in for his country in recent times. The commitment was full-blooded, the energy levels non-stop. He tried so hard to make things happen for his team that he put his blood vessels in danger. Yet when stock was taken, and Capello will now begin the analysis in earnest as his first competitive fixtures loom, the sum total of the damage that Rooney inflicted in the final third was negligible. In cold, hard terms, it was limited to a header straight at Petr Cech on the half-hour and a long-range shot moments later that the Czech goalkeeper made a meal of saving.”

Neil Ashton (Daily Mail) reviews the role of Steven Gerrard in the England team. “They shoehorn the Liverpool midfielder into the side and encourage him to slide up and down the greasy pole that has become England’s left midfield. Poor blighter. Too good to leave out and too flexible to hold down his own position, he was stationed out there again last night. Good ol’ Stevie G. Get him on the graveyard shift and let him get on with it.”

Reacting to the news that Brian Barwick will step down as chief executive of the FA at the end of the year, Dominic Fifield (Guardian) contends that Steve McClaren’s appointment will always be a “millstone hanging around his neck.” “Barwick was spotted flying to meet the Brazilian, then later claimed he had never offered Scolari the job once it became clear that he wished to remain with Portugal. When McClaren was unveiled the chief executive’s assertion that Eriksson’s No2 had always been the FA’s ‘first choice’ fooled few, with the subsequent failure to reach Euro 2008 costing the association around £5m in lost revenue. Barwick was also forced to negotiate a £2.5m pay-off with McClaren.”

Martin Samuel gives his explanation for Brian Barwick’s departure in The Times. “Barwick’s weakness was that he had no record as a stellar businessman, as befits an organisation with a turnover pushing £300 million, and he was not a stellar footballer, so could not be the figurehead that, for example, Franz Beckenbauer is for the German federation. He is a popular individual, though, with an impressive range of contacts throughout football, but Triesman wanted more. The furious way he has sought to change the FA in little more than six months in the job suggests he doubted the existing regime from the beginning, and most particularly the man at its helm.”

Echoing sentiments made by several commentators, Sam Wallace (Independent) notes the differences in the political savviness between Lord Triesman and Brian Barwick. “A former television executive, Barwick was not an accomplished performer in front of the press and at one toe-curling press conference famously insisted that McClaren had always been his first choice as England manager. He was always likely to struggle against the more slick, politically astute Triesman, who many at the FA regard as just the kind of heavyweight networker capable of representing the organisation in government and around the world.”

The Daily Express’ Paul Joyce tries to sex-up the Barwick story by writing “it is understood that a series of top-level meetings resulted in an ‘acrimonious’ showdown yesterday, in which his departure was confirmed just months after he had headhunted coach Fabio Capello and only hours before England’s disappointing 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic at Wembley. Bizarrely, it has been agreed that Barwick, who is paid a £450,000 salary, will stay on until the end of the year.”

England are not the only nation unhappy with their national. The Irish Independent reports on how Brazil have turned on Dunga following his side’s 3-0 hammering to Argentina. “The influential ‘Globo’ newspaper simply filled its front Olympic page with a tombstone and a mock obituary in a plea for an end to Dunga’s two-year tenure, in which Tuesday’s 3-0 loss was the latest in a series of lifeless performances… It said the funeral Mass would be held on tomorrow, referring to Brazil’s bronze-medal contest against Belgium. ‘Don’t bring flowers.’ President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to local media, told lawmakers at a meeting on Tuesday that the team were ‘embarrassing’ and that he had ‘never been so angry’, not even when his favourite Corinthians club team were at their worst.”

The big transfer story of the day is Sunderland’s loan capture of Djibril Cisse. The Independent’s Michael Walker explains why Cisse was targeted by Roy Keane. “Cissé scored 27 goals in 54 matches for Marseilles last season, including three in Europe. But he was a substitute for Sunday’s French league game at home to Auxerre – won 4-0 by Marseilles – and the club’s chairman Pape Diouf explained that Cissé was not happy with that situation due to the effect it could have on his international career.”

Yet Cisse’s return to the Premier League will be eclipsed according to Matt Lawton (Daily Mail), who reports that “Chelsea seal Robinho deal after Kenyon makes Madrid trip.” “Chelsea were close to completing the signing of Robinho for £25million last night after chief executive Peter Kenyon was seen arriving in Madrid to tie up the deal… The situation now seems to have been resolved and Luiz Felipe Scolari will be delighted to add his countryman to a list of summer signings that includes Deco and Jose Bosingwa.”

Floating a rumour which has featured throughout the summer with little evidence of any substance, the Telegraph’s Matt Lawless peddles the story that Manchester United could sign Ajax’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. “Despite the player’s persistent pleas to be sold, Tottenham are still refusing to compromise on their £30 million valuation of Berbatov, depriving the unsettled Bulgarian of his ‘dream move’… United’s attempts to repair relations with the north London club have been met with little assistance from White Hart Lane officials and patience is beginning to wear thin at Old Trafford, fuelling speculation a move for Ajax Captain Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is instead a possibility.”

But The Sun claim Berbatov remains committed to joining the reigning champions, publishing photographs of the Bulgarian signing a Manchester United shirt. Charlie Wyatt reports that “Berbatov faces a furious Spurs backlash after we snapped him signing a Manchester United shirt… The sight of their striker signing a Red Devils shirt will spark further outrage. An onlooker said: ‘I was gobsmacked when he took the shirt and signed it’… Berbatov, 27, signed the shirt at Sofia Airport as he set off for Bulgaria’s friendly in Bosnia-Herzegovina where he scored twice in a 2-1 win.”