Newly-humbled England aim for World Cup boost

Frank Lampard believes Fabio Capello’s refusal to pander to the egos of England’s pampered superstars has played a key role in putting the team on course for the World Cup finals.

After the indulgent reigns of Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren ended in failure, Capello moved quickly to shatter the sense of entitlement and complacency that pervaded the England squad when he took charge last year.

Now Capello’s side can take a significant step towards next year’s tournament in South Africa by maintaining their 100 percent start to the qualifying campaign against Ukraine at Wembley on Wednesday.

Key to the process has been Capello’s ruthless treatment of Michael Owen, who was once a mainstay of the team but couldn’t even win a call-up ahead of Darren Bent when Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch suffered injuries during Saturday’s 4-0 friendly win over Slovakia.

Even David Beckham, for so long the first name on any England teamsheet – even when he wasn’t fully fit, has been forced to accept a bit-part role.

It hasn’t taken long for Capello’s regime to play off. Four successive wins have fired England to the top of Group Six and another victory over Ukraine would give them one foot in the finals already.

Chelsea midfielder Lampard admits it was about time England’s underachievers were given a reality check.

“We needed a very strong leader who had his own mind,” he said. “With Capello you can see that.

“The best managers I’ve worked with have a fear element, but it’s not a fear where you can’t speak to them. It’s about the decisions he makes for the good of the team.

“When he came in, a lot of people made a thing of the WAGS and a lack of an England team that really cared about results.

“There was an element of truth in a lot of what was said. We just needed someone to put us in line a little bit and concentrate on what we’re doing.

“At times those things can be a slight culture shock, when you are told you need to do this, you need to wear that. But then you start winning games and you get a really good feeling about things. You get a belief and it’s very easy to handle because you’re winning.

“That’s maybe what we needed. It was easy to see we played as individuals too much in the past. We have very good individuals, but the team didn’t perform because we weren’t playing as a group.

“You need to have humility and to be selfless. You need to work for your mate next to you, to play out of position if that’s what is required. That’s something Capello needed to bring.”

Lampard admits he was once so sure of his place that he didn’t even bother to check the squad announcements. That complacency is gone and to maintain his place in the team he now has to ignore his attacking inclinations and play a more disciplined role.

With Lampard and Gareth Barry holding the midfield, the key to victory on Wednesday will be Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard’s ability to reproduce the form that overwhelmed Slovakia.

Rio Ferdinand is expected to recover from the injury that kept him out agains the Slovakians, so Capello’s only dilemma is to decide whether to play Crouch or Bent alongside Rooney.

If England’s 100 percent record is ended on Wednesday, the chances are Andriy Shevchenko will have proved a point in the city where he flopped so badly with Chelsea.

Ukraine striker Shevchenko is currently back at AC Milan after a miserable two-year spell in west London that saw him score just nine goals following his 30 million pounds transfer from the San Siro.

But Lampard believes the 2004 European Footballer of the Year can still pose a serious threat for the unbeaten Ukrainians.

“He tried very hard to make it work at Chelsea. There were probably reasons why it didn’t work that he would explain better,” Lampard said.

“I’d have thought he’d love to make his mark on Wednesday. He’ll see this as an opportunity to come back to this country and show what he can do.

“Going into the game, we have to be aware that he can produce something out of nothing.”