MEMO TO FABIO CAPELLO
All we are saying is give pace a chance
RIGHT, Fabio. You've shown a tiny jot of ambition against the might of Andorra... now show you've got the bottle when it really matters.
You have just about kicked the puppy, now snarl back at the growling beast that guards the gates to World Cup 2010.
Click here to see all the pictures from England's win over Andorra
The core of the discredited golden generation was absent - David Beckham on the bench for all but a handful of minutes, Michael Owen in his living-room, Steven Gerrard on the treatment table.
Click here to tell us what you think of Capello's start as England boss
And Fabio's newish generation eventually managed to grab their chance.
Yes, it could have been a whole, whole lot more convincing.
For the most part, it was pretty painful, pretty awful, pretty damn familiar.
But this was an England team with the one asset that has been painfully absent during the Beckham years.
Pace.
And why not unleash it on the Croatians on Wednesday?
Too many times, England have tackled tough tasks with timidity.
It's time for Capello to stand tall in difficult climes.
And it's time for Wayne Rooney to rediscover that streak of brilliance England fans last saw on June 21, 2004.
The opposition that day? The foes in three days' time.
Rooney two, England four, Croatia crestfallen.
Back then, he was a young colt galloping rapidly towards thoroughbred status.
What we saw in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium was a workhorse. A pit pony beavering away in tunnels.
Yes, he grafted. Yes, he only occasionally surrendered possession.
Yes, he slipped a delicious pass through for Joe Cole's second goal.
Yes, he even managed to keep a lid on it when poked and prodded by Andorran aggressors. But he did not have a meaningful shot on goal. Nor did he make a single eye-catching, intelligent run.
Rooney retains priceless talent. Capello has a couple of training sessions to unlock it.
The Manchester United striker is soon fronting a TV series to find a striker from street football. On this evidence - and the evidence of two goals since those European Championships in Portugal - he still is one.
So now is the time for Capello to earn his corn and devote as many waking hours as possible into reviving Rooney's international career.
If he does that, then Operation Zagreb might not seem like such a tough assignment after all.
That Capello will approach that game with caution seems a given.
Creativity
After all, Croatia's record in the Maksimir Stadium - not a single competitive loss - surely demands it.
There is even a suggestion that Beckham will return in a five-man midfield aimed at stifling the creativity of Luka Modric and his cohorts.
And it's in that area where Croatia are strongest.
If Rio Ferdinand returns, perhaps Joleon Lescott or Wes Brown will take the right-back role ahead of Glen Johnson.
And that would be a shame - despite the Portsmouth defender's somewhat erratic performance.
Indeed, Johnson and Theo Walcott were hardly foot-perfect in a display that, quite frankly but almost predictably, stank the place out for long periods. Coldplay were performing in an arena barely 500 yards away . . . and even that seemed more appealing.
Bland, middle-of-the-road, ineffective, inoffensive stuff. And Coldplay weren't much better apparently.
Poverty
But with flashes of Bolt-esque pace, Walcott and Johnson gave an added dimension to a team that sorely needs an added dimension.
In fact, any dimension would do.
But even allowing for the relative poverty of this performance, over-rating the task in Croatia is a trap that Capello should not fall into.
And dumping the promise of the Walcott-Johnson combination would be to slip into that psyche.
It is highly likely that the team Slaven Bilic sends out on Wednesday will not feature a single player with Champions League commitments in his diary this season.
That was the case when they beat Germany on a memorable night in Klagenfurt in the summer but who progressed to the final?
A German side that had taken Bilic and a fiercely patriotic bunch far too lightly.
(By the way, if a Croatian expressed the view that losing for club hurts more than for country - in the way Jamie Carragher did - then his autobiography would be burnt not bought).
And their toothless display against the Turks in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 showed that Croatian threat is as much in the mind as it is on the pitch.
Three of the five goals they scored against England in Steve McClaren's ill-fated qualifying campaign were goalkeeping gifts.
Swagger
Croatia should not be striking fear into English hearts. So it is just a shame that Capello's team are not going there after a riot of goals.
This was a chance to rediscover a swagger and a confidence that is now a very distant, very grainy memory.
And they never got particularly close to taking it.
Of course, a win's a win . . . blah, blah, blah.
Yes. But this was a tone-setting game for Capello.
A marker no matter how small. And for his credibility it mattered.
When McClaren strode into the post-match Press conference after England's last win over Andorra - a victory in only the barest sense of the word - and told reporters to 'write what they want' before swivelling on his heels, his tenure was doomed.
Capello's credibility has survived - just. And he should take lessons from this game, even though it was against a motley collection of no-hopers.
The Cole volley that quietened discontent in English throats early in the second half and the cultured finish for his second means he must start against Croatia.
There has been a lobby for Stewart Downing to be given more regular consideration for some time.
But this demonstrated that Downing - admirable Premier League performer that he is - can't quite fit the international bill.
Hopefully, Capello will respond to the many negatives of this night.
Because so far, he has yet to convince anyone that he is anything but a slightly more qualified version of McClaren and Sven Goran Eriksson.
But, on Wednesday evening, he has a golden opportunity to change that.
If he is really worth £6million a year, he should take it.
