England had been trailing by two goals before recovering to
draw 2-2 at home to Switzerland on Saturday in a Euro 2012 qualifier with
Capello saying his side lacked energy, echoing his explanation for last year's
miserable World Cup showing.
This time, the Italian had given his players time to go on
holiday and said they had returned "happy" and as excited as
"children" to be playing again but the end result was the same as
British media derided another England lacklustre performance.
"The problem is always the energy. The Swiss players
were fresher than ours," Capello told reporters. "In the last 10
minutes we had some players without energy. It is a difficult time of the year
to play a match like this." The Wembley match came two weeks after the end
of the Premier League season and a week after the Champions League final where
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was the only Saturday starter to
feature in the 3-1 defeat by Barcelona.
England were without first-choice striker Wayne Rooney, who
was suspended and who tweeted that he had used the time off to have a hair
transplant, and injured Jermain Defoe but Capello's concern was over tiredness
rather than missing players.
A year ago when England's poor World Cup displays ended in a
second-round thumping by Germany, the manager had also said his players were
tired.
This week he said he had learnt lessons from the experiences
in South Africa and that was why he had given his players time off now and also
planned to give them up to two weeks off before next year's European
Championship if they qualified.
Qualification is far from certain, with England lucky still
to be top of Group G after their cause was helped by Montenegro being held 1-1
by Bulgaria on Saturday. England are level on 11 points with the Montenegrins.
While captain John Terry said tiredness could be no excuse
for the way his team played against Switzerland, the manager's words were the
ones grabbing the media spotlight.
"Clueless Fabio is flaking it," wrote the News of
the World, while The People said Capello had "wheeled out a tired old
World Cup excuse" and The Observer wrote "manager's selections and
motivational skills continue to baffle".
England's
next qualifier for Euro 2012, being co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine, is against
Bulgaria on Sept. 2.
