Fabio Capello has everything in place

Fabio Capello could be forgiven for hoping that the World Cup finals started tomorrow, not a year to the day, writes Matt Dickinson in the Times, as the ever-prepared Italian has everything in place for the national team.

"Forget plans B, C and D, and all that talk of experimentation. Capello knows his best XI, how he wants them to play and all the next 365 days represents is fretting time," avers Dickinson. "It is a year to worry about whether Emile Heskey, who will be 32 and probably even more injury-prone by next summer, will be fit enough to lead the line."

It's another twelve months to fret about whether England's midfield of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who are finally showing signs of being able to play together in the same side, "will be in the sort of buoyant form that they took into last night’s victory stroll against Andorra." There's even time, of course, for Wayne Rooney to "succumb to the usual pre-tournament curse of the metatarsal".

"England may have been missing Heskey, Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Barry and David James last night, but the first two could have played at a push and Barry was absent only because of a one-match suspension. Capello will be delighted if his squad, and particularly the attacking nucleus of his team, is in this shape a year from now as attention turns to the first World Cup to be played in Africa."

And while some fans grumbled at the lack of experimentation of offer in last night's rout of the pitiful Andorrans, Capello's achievements to date with England are astonishing. "He has solved the Lampard/Gerrard debate, resolved the left-wing conundrum in the process and found Rooney’s best position, which is more than Sir Alex Ferguson has managed at United."

Most importantly, says Dickinson, "he has banished the fear, both on the road and now at Wembley. Those things that he has not solved - the inability to match Spain for possession football, the lack of a world-class goalkeeper, a prolific No 9 - are matters beyond his control." ·