It's a brave new era for the England squad under Capello. Among the incredible new initiatives from Fabio:

- calling players by their names, not their nicknames!
- getting the players to meals on time!
- not allowing them to use mobile phones at meals!
- actually training, rather than playing crossbar challenge!

The sad thing really is that all this needed doing. The tabloids are portraying Capello as a 'headmaster', partly by bastardising a quote from Rio Ferdinand about it being like the first day at a new school; what Ferdinand went on to say was that it felt that way because they were all eager to learn what the new teacher has to teach. Which is a positive thing to hear, especially from a player so notably brainless.

Capello is also very wisely pretending he doesn't speak English. Apparently he is speaking good English with the players, but he is doing interviews through an interpreter, a very sensible move I reckon.

First game is tonight against Switzerland, after a minute's silence in memory of the Munich disaster which, if you were to listen to MUPLC, we have all already booed our way through. One of their executives was on the radio this morning calling for life bans for anyone who disrespects the silence; perhaps a fair punishment but really, if anything is going to cause problems then it is this preemptive pointing of the finger. Meanwhile, MU's own fans took to spray painting a memorial banner at Old Trafford, because one of the PLC's approved methods of 'respecting' the Munich disaster was to slap a dirty great sponsor's logo on it. 'The Munich Memorial In Association With AIG'? It beggars belief.

Shane Cansdell-Sheriff, the chap who made the first goal for Tranmere, is also ex-Leeds.

There was no way Ian Moore wasn't going to score on his first game for his dad. It being against Leeds was just a bonus.

Team mates, opponents, pie-vendors cheer!

Anyone else find this a bit odd and very sad? He's lost his deisre to play at 32??!! I bet there's loads of players who've lost their fitness through injury or age who'll spit nails when they read this. He wants to give up so he can eat more? He could play 3-4 more years then gorge himself silly for decades! He sounds like he needs help of some sort - he always did seem to be hovering on the edge, as Eyal Berkovic would probably testify.

The latest outbreak of utter stupidity/$$$$$ love in the world of football. Just add it to the long list.

re: England last night - I didn't really watch the game, just bits during the first half whilst I was cooking and bits during the second whilst I was eating. The first half looked absolutely dire. The second looked significantly improved. The end result was a performance that whilst mediocre to say the least, was actually better than I thought it would be. Capello seems to have done the trick at half time, which is encouraging, and had got them playing differently, which is also good. Unfortunately, they can't yet play as he wants them to because they're neither flexible nor good enough.

Rooney up front on his own will never work. But I'm gonna put my trust in Capello to realise that before too long.

the guardian are reporting it as if its definitley happening. Awful. http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Sto ... 32,00.html

Yeah, that overseas game business is disgusting. Only in it for the money...

I fell asleep during the first half of the England game last night. My strongest emotions during the 90 minutes were utter distaste whenever I saw Ashley Cole, and bemusement whenever I was reminded that Wes Brown was playing.

A mediocre performance from a crappy team.

Motson: (The Swiss) are hardly world-beaters, are they?
Lawrenson: No, but we're making them look like world-beaters.

night_tools wrote:
Motson: (The Swiss) are hardly world-beaters, are they?
Lawrenson: No, but we're making them look like world-beaters.

A repulsive commentary duo.

I liked when the speaker said: "the referee from germany" - "BUUUUHHHH!!!!". even Capello had to smile a little.

Dear PRF,

Were we even watching the same etc? Why oh why etc?

I really thought last night England were much improved. It wasn't earth shattering, but in the space of four training sessions Capello achieved something that previous managers have failed to do in as many years: he got the England players to pass the ball, to each other. No more hopeful punts forward, even when Crouch had come on. No more leathering it out of defence. It was careful, possession football.

Now, in the first half this didn't work very well. The players seemed nervous, and some were very hesitant in possession and so gave the ball away easily. The goal, after brilliant work by Joe Cole, calmed them down and so did half-time, and in the second half they looked composed and comfortable in possession. At one point John Motson complained that despite having 70% possession England had to do something with it. But hang on - 70%]? When did England last have 55%, let alone 70%?

Playing Rooney up front on his own makes sense, as England struggle a little for quality strikers while having a number of excellent midfielders. 4-5-1 makes the best of what the country has to offer. There was certainly no shortage of goalscoring chances in the second half. Whether that '1' should be Rooney is open to question - I'd rather see Crouch, with Rooney behind - but this was game one and there is time for refinement.

As least, there will be as long as nobody listens to the Wembley crowd. At one point, an England attacking move petered out, but rather than punt the ball at the striker or lose possession as in days of yore, England kept the ball and played it back to central defence to start again. For this, they were roundly booed. However, it was from this position that England were able to launch another attack down the other wing, which resulted in a goalscoring opportunity in the six yard box.

This was so much better than anything we saw under McClaren.