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David Artell

England get solid start under Capello

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Morecambe's David Artell reckons a dose of Fabio is good for our international 'superstars'...

This week gave us a glimpse of Fabio Capello's managerial style on two fronts. Firstly, when the squad met up with the new rules he implemented and secondly with the game on Wednesday night.

It is refreshing to see that a manager seems to have control of the players and won't take any rubbish off them unlike the last England manager. Footballers are made in such a way that if you give them an inch, they take a yard, so implementing the rules he has from the outset can only make his job easier because everyone knows where they stand and are all 'singing from the same hymn sheet'.

The fines at Morecambe are fairly relaxed from the manager but that's because he already has the respect of everyone and doesn't need to gain respect quickly like Capello has to. We have to dress smartly for dinner when we stop in hotels but the gaffer doesn't call us by our surnames like Capello does although I think this has more to do with the language barrier than discipline. We are allowed to use our phones on the coach and at the training ground, although I have been at a club where we had to leave our phones in the car and weren't allowed to use them on the coach. I think it's very different at our level as we don't get our agents phoning us every two minutes regarding interviews, transfer speculation etc.

The match on Wednesday night will have given Capello plenty of food for thought. England got the right result but it was obvious that the players were under new leadership as the performance was disjointed at times. Having said that, I thought England played pretty well; it was certainly one of the better friendlies I've watched. I thought the system employed by Capello, with Gareth Barry utilised as a holding midfielder, is the way to go at international level and I think Barry is the man to do it. For me he has been the find of the season for England and allows two attacking midfielders (of which England has plenty) to get forward and support a lone striker. Couple this with two wide men in Joe Cole and David Bentley, who both had a good game, and you have a substantial attacking force. All in all it was a good start to the Capello era.

It was interesting to see people in the papers this week criticising the Match of the Day commentator who said "that's what you can expect to get when you play away from home" as Ashley Cole was booed by the Portsmouth fans. They argued that the commentators should describe the football on show and not pass judgement on players' private lives. I agree with them to a certain extent but for me light hearted banter is all part and parcel of the game, although there is a fine line between that and stepping over the mark and becoming too personal. If supporters can influence a player to perform worse than he is capable of and it gives their team an advantage, however small, then so be it. Like I said, so long as it doesn't become too personal (or racist, homophobic etc.) then he's likely to be jeered and to be commentated on in a negative way. At the end of the day, he probably he should have behaved himself - in my eyes he needs his head testing if he cheats on a woman like Cheryl!!

It was interesting to see Jermain Defoe's interview on becoming a Portsmouth player last week when he basically spoke about nothing else but scoring goals. I think all strikers have a selfish attitude and have to back themselves to score although some are a little bit more reserved than others. He's got off to a good start by scoring on his debut but whether that carries on only time will tell. I think he will always score goals wherever he plays, the big question that's still unanswered is why did Spurs, a club chasing Champions League football, let him go? Do they think he isn't good enough at the very top of club football or is there some other reason? Personally I wouldn't have got rid of him as he's a fantastic player off the bench and a natural finisher. So my tip this week? I think he'll score again and help Portsmouth secure a victory at Bolton ([3.0]).