Boss-in-waiting Fabio Capello says England need to overcome a 'mental block' to be successful.
Fabio Capello says England need to overcome a 'mental block' to be successful.
The Italian is set to be appointed as Steve McClaren's successor after he held talks on Wednesday.
Capello is determined to get to the bottom of the quandary of how a country like England can continually under-achieve on the international stage.
Capello worked with David Beckham at Real Madrid and he says that he never saw a repeat of his displays for him, with England.
"There is tremendous difference in the attitude they show from one game to the next. How can players of the level of Beckham or Owen have performances so different when they play for their national team?" he told
The Sun.
Psychology
"It's clear the shirt is very heavy even for those great champions. The manager has a fundamental role to play in this situation. He has to be more of a psychologist than a tactician or a technician.
"It's clear there is a mental block - otherwise how can you explain their elimination from Euro 2008?"
Capello also talked about England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, which cost McClaren his job.
"We managers ask ourselves 'how can England, with the players they have, not qualify for the 2008 European Championships?'" he said.
"The English team, much like the Spanish team, wins very little despite having some very good players.
"I've watched some of the games of the English.
"In the match against Russia in Moscow they played defensively.
"They sat right outside their own 18-yard box for 90 minutes despite having the advantage after taking a 1-0 lead in the first half.
"Against Croatia at Wembley they were all playing up front.
"They lost 2-3 when a draw at home would have been enough for them to qualify."
