I have to say I took that with a pinch of salt, tbh. I thought he was saying he didn't want the job because he knew he'd never get it anyway. A bit churlish perhaps but not the huge insult you seem to think it is.
Did they? Hmm... don't think so mate. No, we wanted someone at least vaguely competent and he seemed that but there's no way 'everyone wanted' him. Frankly, most people didn't even know who the guy was when he first turned up. Everyone in Italy might have known but nobody knew over here. Why should they? At first his results looked good but that's largely in comparison to the dross we'd had to put up with. After that we realised he just didn't have the personality to inspire the players when the going got tough so we'd get so far and no further. Well, no argument there.
He coached for a long time in Italy. I believe he was there for 13+ years also with Benfica. He was well known. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven-Göran_Eriksson
In Italy they consider Capello a hero, and find it exciting that an Italian will manage the country where football was born.
Er... well, yeah!!! I knew who he was when he arrived. I'm just correcting the impression you seemed to have that everyone in England was thrilled that the guy was coming to manage the England side. They weren't. Those that knew of him thought him a competent coach but nothing special who'd been successful in 2 relatively minor leagues and one major one after he'd been given a shit-load of money. I think we believe Capello to have a better record than Eriksson.
Long ball was their traditional style but I don't see too many EPL teams continuing to employ that style of football.
Truth is we never particularly played the long ball, per se. It was only ever used as part of a range of methods to get the ball forward in behind the defence. We played it more than the continental sides... that's true - but this idea that English sides only ever booted the ball upfield and chased after it is total crap, like most generalisations. English sides didn't win 7 EC's in 10 years using THAT method. TBH, it comes from the same school of thought that all Italians are divers and hysterical weenies. It's bullshit.
The way that you deny that English teams have ever used long balls would be like an Italian denying that Serie A clubs or gli azzurri never played catenaccio. Don't tell me you forgot Graham Taylor! BTW, English teams should play like the NT did at Italia 90 (bar the Ireland match) and Euro 96 (especially like in the Holland match).
It's not that it's never been used but Taylor was the only one who used it as his main tactic. The England team has never been a long ball team (which is not just the process of hitting balls forward from the defence).
I'm sure its not used on every play but it is/was a tactic that was used maybe it could have been once twice or three times in a game. This doesn't mean it was never used or never employed but it was an alternate style that was used. I agree with the fact that a certain style of football is learned from the same school , I.E. Brazil, Italy or Engalnd. Simone Perrotta said during the World Cup "Italians have defense in their blood" and this is true to a certain extent. Italians really know how to play defense. You see the Brazilians coming over to play today and they still use the "jogo bonito" style they used 20 years ago.
I think the point about the long ball is that it's an extreme example of the British way of playing. A continental manager, (Wenger? Maybe?), once said that the British style of play was to constantly attack and that part of that was to lose possession to get it back again quite quickly. I think there's a lot in that as a concept. Personally I think it would be a mistake for Capello to try and completely change the way the England side plays for the simple and obvious reason that an international manager only has the players for a relatively short period of time. There's just no way he could do it reliably. TBH I doubt that's what he's going to do. I imagine he'll just try and take the best parts of the British game, (which, in any event, are the same as the Italian teams he's managed), of high pressure in the middle of the park, not giving the other side space to play and being organised in defense. The thing is we HAVE got some good attacking players like Rooney and Owen. If we're difficult to break down and have got some attacking flair we should give a reasonable account of ourselves against most opposition. Frankly, as I've already said, most of us would be happy with that. If we don't win anything under those circumstances, so be it. Mind you, whether the hyenas in the press will see it like that I wouldn't like to say but my guess would be 'not!'. One thing's for sure. It'll be interesting to watch... for both us AND you.
I wonder how close Marcello Lippi was to getting offered the job? Since Fabio can barely speak English either, the FA might have been better off trying to get the #1 coach in the world instead.
I agree with Doria on this. Capello might be good enough to win the league but he is a terrible tournament coach. In fact I am not even going to talk about his failures with Juventus in the Champions League but his failure with Roma. His team played with 3 forwards in Serie A during his time with Roma but when it came to the CL he played Totti behind one forward and basically played conservative hence the reason why he failed with a pretty good team. He never made it to the knock out rounds. He will fail with England because England do not have the players to fit his style of play.
