West Ham and England defender Matthew Upson grateful for Italian influence

Published: 26 Mar 2009 - 11:10:35

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West Ham and England defender Matthew Upson grateful for Italian influence

With Italy renowned for a more tactical approach, Upson says that both West Ham and England have improved through combining their traditional high-tempo qualities with a style that places greater emphasis on retaining possession. "There are a lot of similarities in their character and the way they view football," said Upson. "They definitely have a real tactical knowledge and I think Italian football is very tactical compared to the English game. "We are a bit more high tempo but I think both managers have brought a tactical awareness to the teams and that will make us more difficult to beat and maybe a better structured team. "At the top level it's the only way you can play football. Gianfranco Zola certainly views it that way and he played the game in that fashion as a real talented flair player who liked to pass and moving the ball, and Fabio Capello is very much the same. We have to play and pass the ball and when we don't have we have to get the right shape and be tough to break down." Upson, who has already won six caps under Capello, believes that England may have learnt most from their recent 2-0 defeat against Spain, the European champions. "It was a massive test and experience, you're probably playing against one of the best teams in the world right now," he said. "It was a good opportunity to put ourselves up against those calibre of players so it was a good experience for us. There are big lessons to be learned in defeat, people often say that you learn more about yourself when you lose than when you win. " It's never a nice experience to lose a game obviously, but you need to take the positives out of the game and learn a lot from the things we didn't do well enough. That's something the manager has analysed since that game. "The 10 day get-togethers are the only real time you get a bit of rhythm and routine in the training sessions and the daily routine generally. We make full use of these days and the manager always says to us at training 'You can't have this day again', so when we train it's important that we focus and concentrate almost as if we were playing." Upson is likely to be the main cover to John Terry and Rio Ferdinand at centre-back for the forthcoming games, though Capello will use a more experimental line-up for Saturday's friendly match against Slovakia. Steven Gerrard yesterday trained on the left of midfield, with Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry operating in the centre, while Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey are expected to renew their partnership in attack. With Shaun Wright-Phillips struggling with an ankle injury, Aaron Lennon is competing with David Beckham for a place on the right of midfield.