So England strolled through qualification for World Cup 2010. It means nothing now they are there.

So Fabio Capello has a great record in domestic football and guided England through one of their best qualifying campaigns in living memory. That also means nothing now.

He picked Ledley King who had been injured for a long time, is now injured again and probably out of the tournament after one half of football. He picked Gareth Barry who still hadn’t proven his fitness and didn’t exactly prove his worth when selected against Algeria. He chose Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips ahead of Theo Walcott – the last man to score a hat-trick in an England shirt – yet one struggled to get into his club team and the other uses his left foot to stand on and nothing more.

 

Capello insists on naming his starting line-up as late as possible, including telling the players themselves. Add this to his insistence on playing a style of football that is not working as evidenced by a woeful second half against the USA and a dreadful ninety against Algeria and England’s ability to progress is in serious danger in a tournament that is as open and up for grabs as any during the past thirty years.

If something doesn’t work, you change it. Unless, that is, you are Fabio Capello.

What was called for against Algeria was a little guile and innovation in the final third. With Steven Gerrard being restrained in his midfield role and prevented from playing with greater freedom that so enhances his performances for Liverpool, and Wayne Rooney being prevented from playing with greater freedom by a lack of either fitness, form or desire, the call to throw on a player with both guile and innovation on the form of Joe Cole could probably be heard 6,000 miles away. Yet he remained on the bench and England remained goalless.

If Capello believes that his strategy and tactics will win England the World Cup he has ninety minutes next Wednesday to prove it. If not, the new contract offered by the FA could prove as costly-a-mistake as those initial plans to re-build Wembley in the same site. So far, the choices he has made have not lost England a match yet they haven’t won them one either and, to win a World Cup, you need to start winning matches.

If the England that turned up in the first two matches ever get to face Germany or Argentina or Spain, there will be only one outcome unless Fabio Capello becomes flexible Fabio.