Internationals / Mike Norman / 24 March 2009 / 1 Comments

After 11 games under Fabio Capello, "Mystical" Mike Norman is upbeat about England and their 2010 chances. The players were never the problem, he says, just the mentality and the self-belief.

I've always insisted that football is as much about mentality as it is about ability. Take Chelsea for example.

How can the exact same squad of players (Didier Drogba especially) put in some great performances and demonstrate excellent team spirit for one manager, and be rubbish on the field whist looking completely disinterested whilst playing under another manager? The answer of course is mental attitude. Drogba and Co didn't discover an extra 10% of ability overnight - their attitude towards playing football simply changed because they had belief in their new manager as opposed to losing faith in their previous one.

The England national team didn't fail to qualify for Euro 08 because they were a bunch of poor players; they failed because they had little or no belief in manager Steve McClaren. Despite some senior players coming out to publicly support him (we'd expect nothing less surely), the fact is that McClaren couldn't motivate his squad enough - and mentally, the players weren't prepared to sweat blood and tears for him.

In a game where the difference in ability between the world's best players is such a fine one, having the right mental attitude can distinguish you as being the best, rather than just one of. This is where Fabio Capello comes in.

England's second foreign manager came to the job with a hefty reputation, not just for being a world class manager, but for being a strict disciplinarian. He is intelligent, determined, and exactly the type of manager our flighty players need. Put simply, he isn't a father-figure, he is the boss. He is not here to win friends, he is here to win football matches.

I haven't seen anything bad in what Capello has done so far as England boss, just good. Yes we were outplayed and outclassed by Spain, but they are the European Champions no less, they were playing on home soil, and they were defending a long unbeaten run. Perhaps the game meant just slightly more to them than what it did to England - which takes us back to mental attitude. I'm confident that if England were to meet Spain in a competitive game, Capello would have his side far more mentally tuned and the outcome would be a different one - performance-wise at least.

Results have gone well for Capello in attempting to qualify for next year's World Cup, and after four wins out of four in Group 6, England are available to back at just [1.22] to top the group.

The most impressive of those four wins was undoubtedly away to Croatia when the Three Lions roared to an emphatic 4-1 success thanks to a wonderful hat-trick from Theo Walcott. Whilst Capello has been reluctant to include some of England's best youngsters on a regular basis in his squads, Walcott has been (barring injury) an exception. It's obvious that the Italian sees him as a pivotal part of the team, a different view to the one he has of Michael Owen.

Owen is without doubt the big name omission from the England picture during Capello's short reign. Injuries have limited his chances of a call-up, but at times (especially during the months the qualifiers were played) he was in decent form for a poor Newcastle side, was not struggling for fitness any more than David Beckham (who was recalled to the squad) was, and was available for selection when Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey weren't. Yet still the call for Owen to join up with England never came.

Capello likes to play with a traditional flat back four, but it is in midfield in which most of his tinkering has been done during his 11 games in charge.

One benefactor has been Aston Villa's Gareth Barry, who has excelled in the holding role for England so much so that for the game against Kazakhstan, when regular midfielders Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were available for selection, Barry kept his place and Gerrard was moved to the left side of midfield.

It's clear that Capello has his own ideas on who can play where and who can play with whom - and who are we to argue? Things are going well for England right now, and once again good vibes (especially relating to the mentality of the squad) are coming from the lads ahead of their friendly against Slovakia (England [1.29], Slovakia [13.5], The Draw [6.2] - full preview later in the week).

With Fabulous Fabio at the helm England can be backed at [9.8] to win next year's World Cup. Yes, it's that time again, the time to believe England can finally put an end to 43 years of hurt.