Exclusive: Capello looks forward
Monday, 04 October, 2010
The England Manager speaks to TheFA.com before naming his squad for Montenegro.
As Fabio Capello prepares to name his squad for England's third Euro 2012 Qualilfier, which is against Montenegro at Wembley on Tuesday 12 October, he catches up exclusively with TheFA.com.
To watch the interview on FATV, click here
Manchester City had six players in the England team at the end of the Switzerland game, how important is that for you that so many players train and play together on a daily basis?
"It's important because they train every day together, they play together regularly in the matches. They know the better the movement with the ball, without the ball, everything. It's easier to find each other when you play together for the national team.
"I know also that the national teams that won the titles, the World Cup, the Euros, they had something like this. Spain for example had players from three teams, seven from Barcelona, three from Real Madrid and one from Villareal.
"Also I remember Italy when they won the World Cup they had a lot of players from Juventus, because it is really important to have this group, the spirit and mentality of this group, you hope you can find this in your team."
This time around the players will be meeting up on Thursday, with some time off beforehand. Can you explain the thinking around that?
"A lot of players have played a lot of games before we play, I prefer to select the players for the game on Tuesday. Also I prefer not to play a friendly game on the Friday because we think that the Montenegro game will be really, really important."
It has been a good start to qualification, what impressed you most about the performances against Bulgaria and Switzerland?
"We created a lot of chances to score goals, we scored a lot of goals and we defended very well. I was really happy after these two performances, and also the new style we played was really good in every moment.
"Bent is back, he scored his first goal. You know that Bent in front of goal is really, really dangerous. He played 20 minutes against Switzerland and he scored an important goal, he is back and training really well. He is probably one of the important players for the future.
"Defoe, in the new style, is really important. Unfortunately this time he is injured so I have to find another forward like him."
Montenegro have started strongly, have they suprised you?
"I saw these two games that they played, they played very well and are a dangerous team. They defend well and are really compact, they play the counter attack really, really fast. The quality of the forwards is really good."
There is Vucinic who plays for one of your former teams, AS Roma.
"Yes, I know him very well. He scored the goal against Wales, but also he played a really good game away in Bulgaria."
It will be our last qualifier until we travel to Wales in March, a gap of five months, how important is it to go into that break with a positive result?
"We know that in this period we are really good, the players are playing well and physically it is a really good moment. We have to wait five months for the next game with Wales, so we know what we have to do."
To buy tickets for the England v Montenegro Euro 2012 Qualifier next Tuesday night at Wembley, click here