Fabio Capello inherited an England team of dithering losers and turned it into a confident squad of stars who delivered four World Cup qualifying victories in a row. Asked how he did it, the Italian manager who won title after title at club level says there was no magic formula. But he had one simple instruction. Forget its failures and even forget the last victory. That's the mentality that earned trophies and league triumphs for AC Milan, AS Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid and now he hopes it works for England. Capello replaced Steve McClaren, who was fired for failing to get England to Euro 2008 after a loss to Croatia at Wembley. But he said he never asked the players what went wrong. “This is the past,” he said. “I never spoke about the past. I asked them to forget the past, this is the future. “I never spoke about the past in my life, in my system. When we won the game against Croatia (4-1 in Zagreb), it's one step, it's finished, the past. When we won against Belarus, it's the past. It's the same for the players. It's the past, we have to work for the future, we have to work every day, harder.” Capello has imbued a strict lifestyle regime with his players, such as insisting they don't eat food with rich sauces, they don't wander about the team hotel in flimsy shoes and leave their cellphones in their rooms. The wives and girlfriends - the so-called WAGS - stay at home. The changes have been welcomed by the players, who have seen the proof in the results. Capello has led England to victories over Andorra, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in qualifying, and a home victory over Ukraine on April 1 will put the team virtually halfway to the 2010 finals in South Africa. Wayne Rooney has recaptured his goalscoring form although a calf muscle injury has ruled him out of Wednesday's friendly with Germany in Berlin, and Theo Walcott underlined his potential with a hat trick against Croatia in Zagreb. At the back, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand look a formidable obstacle in central defense and Capello believes he will get the best out of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, having noted how well they play for Chelsea and Liverpool without hitting the same form in England colors. England returned to the top 10 in the FIFA world rankings last week and Capello believes his team is capable of beating anyone else above them. “I think we are a very good team,” he said. “We can play against all the countries at the same level. “I think that the confidence of the team is different now. I remember my first game against Switzerland (a 2-1 victory), we played without confidence. Now after winning four games in qualification for the World Cup, I can see the confidence in the players. This is the most important thing.” Capello has kept most of the players who failed under McClaren and even Sven-Goran Eriksson but has improved them and not just on the training field. “I spoke to the players. The most important thing for me is to follow one route, the road that has led to these results,” he said. “We spoke about mistakes and errors and we spoke about the system and to remove the fear and to find the confidence. The English players play very well with their clubs but not the same with the national team. “I think the players understood what I asked them during the meeting and, step by step, I could see that we improved every game, every training.” Capello has one worry - that the players still have a fear of failing to deliver in front of their own fans at Wembley. – AP __
