Goals from Jermaine Jenas and Shaun Wright-Phillips give England's new manager victory in his first game.
Fabio Capello’s reign as England manager began with a promising friendly win against Switzerland in a game which provided some possible insights into his thinking regarding the team and raised some interesting questions as to how he may take the side forward.
New formation/old formation
In a slightly surprising move, Capello decided that the formation he would employ for his opening game would be the notorious 4-5-1 which his predecessor, Steve McClaren, had switched to in the side’s last outing, when a home defeat to Croatia cost England the opportunity of qualifying for Euro 2008.
While the system may have been the same, there was a distinct difference in the personnel. In goal, David James took over from Scott Carson who played in the last game, whilst the previous incumbent, Paul Robinson, didn’t even make the squad. Wes Brown at right back and Matthew Upson in the centre came into a defence which also featured Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole. The five man midfield supporting Wayne Rooney in his lone striking role was made up of Joe Cole on the left, Gareth Barry, Captain Steven Gerrard and new inclusion Jermaine Jenas in the centre and on the right David B – Bentley not Beckham who found himself frozen out for the time being.
England’s deserved win
Being more familiar with their own 4-5-1 set up, Switzerland appeared the quicker side to settle. England on the other hand were trying hard to resist the old temptation to hit long aerial balls to their short striker. As a result, however, they struggled on a number of occasions to play their way through the congested midfield area and consequently saw a number of forced passes go astray.
Slowly the home side began to grow in confidence with their midfielders creating chances for Rooney – the first a cross which the Manchester United striker met with a deft flick that went just past the post, the other a run onto a through ball when Swiss keeper Benaglio did well to prevent Rooney lifting the ball over him.
Finally, with it looking like the game would still be deadlocked at halftime, England took the lead on 40 minutes.
A clever pass from Gerrard found Joe Cole on the corner of the area and his jinking run to the byline left his marker sitting on the Wembley turf and the Swiss defence in enough disarray that he could pull the ball back to Jenas for an easy tap in.
After the break England increasingly picked holes in the Swiss defence and it seemed to be against the run of play when the visitors equalised on 58 minutes with a goal of quality which combined an accurate ball from Hakan Yakin and a sharp finish across David James by Eren Derdiyok.
Rather than showing the uncertainty they had in past games, under Capello’s encouragement, England pushed forward and only four minutes later regained the lead when flick-ons from substitute Peter Crouch, with his head, and then Wayne Rooney, with his foot, set Gerrard racing clear and his vision allowed him to slide the ball into the path of another replacement, Shaun Wright-Phillips, for an easy side-foot home.
While the positive start Capello has generated will sustain him for the time being, questions over his preferred formation, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard and his long term Captain all remain unanswered and he will be well aware that his next game will provide a much sterner test – away to France on 26th March.
