Source: Team_Talk
Don't blame Capello - Ancelotti
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti maintains that Fabio Capello should not shoulder the blame for England's World Cup failure this summer.[LNB] The Three Lions, who were among the pre-tournament favourites, were dumped out in South Africa in the last 16 after a comprehensive defeat to a young vibrant Germany side.[LNB]Since the 4-1 loss in Bloemfontein, Capello has been fighting to rebuild his reputation and the technical skills in English football have been questioned amid concerns over coaching styles.[LNB]But Capello's fellow Italian, Ancelotti, thinks that a lack physical fitness among the likes of Chelsea's Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Manchester United's Wayne Rooney may have been to blame, while Rio Ferdinand missed the World Cup due to a knee injury.[LNB]"The problem for the national team is not tactical. It is not Capello," Ancelotti said in the Daily Mail in an interview which took place prior to his hint that he would one day be interested in managing England.[LNB]"I was surprised by the World Cup, because, really, the England team have top players. Cole, Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney. [LNB]"They are top players. It was a strange World Cup. I don't know the reason. But, as I said, the problem was not tactics because I know Capello.[LNB]"I have never managed an international team but one of the most important things has to be personality and courage, because you don't have time to build a shape the way you can at a club. [LNB]"Physically you have to be good. I think during the World Cup a lot of the England players were not 100 per cent. Rooney for instance."
