Capello on familiar battleground (0)
- 17 Nov 08, 04:05 PM
Fabio Capello's decision to summon Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to England's base ahead of Wednesday's friendly in Germany was a very obvious flexing of his managerial muscle.
Liverpool announced, with lavish detail, that Gerrard had suffered "a tear in the adductor magnus muscle in his right leg" and would not be available.
Adductor magnus or no adductor magnus, Capello decided that England's medical staff, not just Liverpool's, would be the judges of whether Gerrard would be available for the game in Berlin.
Gerrard was ultimately declared injured, but it was the familiar England battleground of club versus country - and Capello shows signs of being a more combative figure than his predecessors Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren.
