Ex-England boss Fabio Capello explains why the Three Lions fell short of tournament glory under Gareth Southgate – as he offers Thomas Tuchel advice to end trophy drought
- England were beaten in two major tournament finals under Gareth Southgate
- Fabio Capello has explained why, and given advice to new boss Thomas Tuchel
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Former England manager Fabio Capello has given his view on why the Three Lions failed to end their wait for a major tournament win under Gareth Southgate.
During his eight years at the helm, Southgate led England to successive Euros finals, but his side fell short against Italy and Spain, respectively.
He resigned from his role after losing to Spain in last year’s final, having narrowly missed out on delivering the trophy that has eluded England since 1966.
Capello – who managed England between 2007 and 2012 – has heaped praise on Southgate for his work with the national team, but feels they ultimately lost their biggest games during his tenure because of their ‘fear of winning’.
‘Southgate did a fantastic job, he arrived twice to play in the final, but they lost the final because when England’s players arrived at the final, they did not play with the same facilities and security that they had played with before,’ Capello told Flashscore.
‘I was at the game at Wembley when they played Italy and after 20 minutes they played to waste time because they had the fear of winning the final.’
Former England manager Fabio Capello (above) believes a ‘fear of winning’ prevented the Three Lions from triumphing in a major tournament during Gareth Southgate’s tenure
England made successive Euros finals under Southgate but narrowly lost both of them
Capello urged new boss Thomas Tuchel to focus on developing a positive mindset in his squad
Capello appears to feel that England’s best chance of winning a tournament came in 2021 when they faced Italy on home turf.
Southgate’s men made the perfect start as they took the lead in the second minute through Luke Shaw.
However, England struggled to create chances for the remainder of the match, and Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci brought his team level midway through the second half to take the game to penalties.
Italy then held their nerve in the shootout to triumph 3-2 on penalties.
Thomas Tuchel has now been tasked with leading England into next year’s World Cup in North America.
Capello knows what it is like for a foreign coach to manage England and has offered advice to his German counterpart.
He is convinced that Tuchel should focus on developing a positive mindset within his squad to get the best out of his players.
‘All the managers that will be managing England, you have to understand this thing: you have to enter the mind and forget what happened before and to only think positively,’ he explained.
Tuchel is set to name his first squad next week ahead of England’s World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia later this month.
