JOE Cole came off the bench for England on Saturday night and spared the blushes of Fabio Capello by scoring both goals in the laboured victory over Andorra. But the Chelsea player didn't exactly get a pat on the back and a "grazie" from his manager at full-time.
Capello could be seen shouting at Cole from the touchline during the match in Barcelona and the Italian revealed afterwards that he had been upset by the midfielder's failure to follow instructions.
Having rescued a 2-2 friendly draw as a substitu
te against the Czech Republic last month, Cole took his tally to three goals in two games when he found the net against Andorra, who are ranked a lowly 186 in Fifa's world list. But Capello was not overly impressed.
"I was not happy with Joe and Wayne Rooney," said the manager, who explained that he had asked both Rooney and Cole to support Emile Heskey up front, but felt that once they had gone 2-0 the pair were dropping too deep into midfield. "I was asking them to go forward again because Emile Heskey was all on his own.
"I tried to transmit something to them but I was too far from the pitch."
Capello's selection of Stewart Downing instead of Cole on the left of midfield misfired after the Middlesbrough winger failed to replicate his impressive early season Premier League form.
And the players seemed to rapidly lose patience when slick passing moves failed to yield an early goal, instead lofting ineffective high balls toward the diminutive front pair of Jermain Defoe and Rooney.
It took the half-time introduction of Cole and Heskey to steady England and Cole put his team ahead in the 49th minute when he smashed in a close-range shot following a flick by Joleon Lescott. Nine minutes later, Cole further cheered the few thousand England fans in the tiny crowd at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium with a low finish from Rooney's defence-splitting pass. He thought he had scored his hat-trick with a back-heeled flick, but the goal was ruled out because he was offside.
Cole's goals should outweigh his tactical waywardness and earn him a recall to the starting line-up for Wednesday's game against Croatia in Zagreb, and Capello did admit that he was satisfied with the Chelsea man's overall performance. "I have got to think about Joe," Capello added. "He is very good for himself at the moment and very good for us. Cole at this moment is scoring goals for fun."
Despite the poor first-half play, Capello insisted he was happy that a team showing four changes – including the replacement of David Beckham with Theo Walcott – had played well enough to win his first competitive match in charge. "I'm happy because we played a good game and made a lot of chances," Capello said. "I'm happy because it's an important three points. It's a good sign for the Croatia game."
Croatia, who beat England home and away during qualification for Euro 2008, warmed up for the midweek match with a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan thanks to goals from Niko Kovac, Luka Modric and Mladen Petric, and the England manager has some big decisions to make on his team selection.
While a case could be made for still leaving out Beckham and keeping Walcott in the starting XI, it would be a brave move by Capello if he continued to overlook the claims for a first start in five internationals from the bubbly Cole.
There is no doubting Cole's potency but maybe Capello's second-half outburst at the player over his lack of support for Heskey tells the story of why he is reluctant to pick him. The Italian demands discipline from his players as they carry out his plans on the pitch and perhaps Cole is seen as a maverick by the one-time Real Madrid manager.
But that has to be weighed up against the problems Cole can cause opposition defenders and at the moment he has the scoring touch. Skipper John Terry said: "Coley came on with a fresh pair of legs and showed great movement for his first goal and the second one. It was two great finishes. He was fantastic.
"I am delighted for Coley. He has been on fire at Chelsea and he has come on and turned things. When he is not in the team, he is really frustrated because he wants to play. I am delighted for him."
Capello knows it will be a completely different game on Wednesday. In contrast to the massed Andorran defence, England must cope with a skilful and slick-moving Croatian side. But he has confidence in his players being able to pull off the positive result needed if England are not going to be playing catch-up in their bid to reach the 2010 World Cup finals.
He said: "Croatia will be strong and the level of the quality of the players will be better and more dangerous. Andorra played to try and not lose the game and not to score goals.
"I followed Croatia a lot in the European Championships. They are a good team and, when they play at home, the fans help the players a lot. The fans are very strong in terms of emotion and passion. Are England good enough to get a result? Yes, I think so. I am confident in my team. Against Andorra we played well for some periods and for other periods too slowly."
Cole himself does not believe fans should judge Capello's team until after the Croatia match. "It is two different animals. Saturday was about getting the job done, coming out with two points and no injuries," he said.
"Playing Croatia will be different. You will have to judge to see how far we have come after Wednesday night."
And, despite the low-key nature of the Andorra win, Cole can already sense that the intensity and Capello's determination have lifted. The Chelsea midfielder said: "We saw (something] a little bit different from him. I was sitting on the bench in the first half and he was very animated and very frustrated. You like to see a bit of that in your manager sometimes.
"He was up and down, ranting and raving and I got the feeling the business has really started now.
"He is getting his message across and we have been working really hard. We have had so many meetings on how we want to play and different tactics."
The full article contains 1096 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
