Fabio Capello will send England back into competitive action tomorrow evening with the same formation and virtually the same personnel humiliated by Germany at the World Cup in June, but the Italian insists he remains "a fighter" who will weather the storm engulfing his tenure as manager.
Jermain Defoe will start tomorrow night's opening Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria, with the trio of changes to the line-up that began the 4-1 World Cup defeat at the Free State Stadium all enforced, dashing any hopes of this proving to be the dawn of a new era. England hope to include Phil Jagielka, who was able to train at Wembley today, and will pick Theo Walcott, the pair effectively replacing the injured John Terry and Frank Lampard, with the only other change from the side beaten in Bloemfontein coming in goal, where Joe Hart steps in for David James.
Capello has received the timely backing of his acting captain, Steven Gerrard, who is expected to start in a central role, and reacted to recent criticism in the media with good humour while acknowledging that the public perception of his reign could shift if Bulgaria are not beaten. "You create a god, and you create a monster, no?" he said. "But this pressure is normal for a manager. It's my job. I remember at Roma, Milan, [Real] Madrid, here – it's the same. It's too easy to be the best when you win, but when you lose you lose everything. You live with this pressure and you have to fight, and I'm a fighter."
England have maintained an impressive level of support – a crowd of over 75,000 is expected at Wembley tonight – suggesting the public continue to back Capello despite his side's dismal failure at the World Cup, though the need to start Group G on a positive note is clear. The manager's approach to training or, it seems, tactics has not shifted since those toils yet Gerrard was quick to insist faith is very much retained in a hugely experienced manager who has enjoyed a glittering career at club level.
"I wanted him to stay [after the World Cup] and I have a lot of belief in him," the midfielder said. "It would have been a knee-jerk reaction to sack the manager after one bad tournament and it would have been crazy to think everything would then be rosy starting with a new guy and that we'd go on and win the Euros. It's crazy to think it's as easy as that. It's important that Fabio is still given a chance. For me, he's a fantastic manager.
"People talk about having to have an English manager, but which Englishman out there has the CV that Fabio Capello has got? The communication is not a problem. He talks to the players individually, and the team, and the message does come across. There's a lot of blame being placed on the manager but it was the players who underperformed out in South Africa. People talk about tactics and stuff but there's only so much that a manager can do. The players have to deliver, and the players didn't do that in Africa."
Gerrard conceded that he could not speak for everyone within the England set-up – "How can I know if everyone is totally 100% behind him if I can't control what's going through every player's mind?" – but pointed to a willingness as a group to "put things right together". "He's been the same, and the routines in training are quite similar," he added. "This is a fresh start in terms of going into a new campaign and trying to qualify for a major tournament, even if it's not a fresh start in terms of the management, but it's now up to the players to ease the pressure and take the focus off him."
The team that start against Bulgaria, ranked 43rd in the world, are expected to retain the look of a 4-4-2 with James Milner preferred to Adam Johnson on the left, though Capello suggested the reality of his strategy would be more flexible.
"We will play the 'modern style'," said Capello, who has released the goalkeeper Scott Carson due to a family bereavement and called up Watford's Scott Loach from the Under-21s as cover. "Usually teams play 9-1: all the defenders have to go forward at times and all the forwards have to defend at times. So [Wayne] Rooney has to come back into midfield sometimes. That is what Barcelona do.
"But when you win people say you play the perfect style. When you lose, people question positions on the pitch. My job is to find the best solution."