England v USA: 'Meaningless' friendlies are a thing of the past under Capello

Manchester United and Chelsea players arrived at England's training centre in very different moods yesterday to be told that, a week after the biggest game of their lives, they must take part in another cup final on Wednesday. An international friendly against the United States would not normally fall into that category, even at Wembley, but treating every England game as a major event is at the heart of Fabio Capello's philosophy.

Having waited a frustrating nine weeks since defeat by France in his second game in charge – the first was a laboured 2-1 win over Switzerland – the manager is raring to go and expects his players to feel the same enthusiasm, even at the end of the usual long and draining season. Speaking in English for the first time yesterday, he said: "It's a friendly match, but when you play for England, you have to play like a final in every match. When I select them, they have to play with the spirit like in their clubs."

Repeating the sort of achievement at club level demonstrated by having two Premier League teams contesting last week's Champions' League final is one of the targets Capello has set himself, insisting that having only some 35 per cent of Premier League players qualified for England is not an excuse for lack of success. "It's very important to recover the spirit of the England team," he said. "My ambition is to arrive at the top. I believe we have the players but they must also believe."

Replicating the spirit of Moscow will come an awful lot easier to Manchester United's contingent of Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves and Wayne Rooney – Michael Carrick was not considered, and is expected to have a minor operation shortly – than to Chelsea's deflated quartet, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard.

Terry, who left Russia looking like a broken man after his missed penalty cost his beloved "Chels" the European Cup, did not train with the rest of the squad at London Colney yesterday, taking part instead in what was termed a recovery session; mental or physical recovery was not specified. Capello insisted Terry will be fit for Wednesday's game, when it would be an interesting test of character to award him the captaincy.

The armband will continue to rotate until Capello decides upon a permanent leader. Steven Gerrard and Ferdinand have done the job so far, while Gareth Barry and, less obviously, Rooney have been suggested as other candidates for the forthcoming friendlies. The second one, away to Trinidad and Tobago a week today, definitely goes ahead after an internal financial dispute was resolved.

The strongest available team will be picked for Wembley, after which a squad of 28 will be trimmed by seven, not necessarily omitting all the Chelsea and United players. Several of them have something to prove, above all Lampard, who has not yet featured under Capello. The manager must solve the conundrum that regularly faced his predecessors Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren of whether Lampard can function effectively in the same midfield as Gerrard, with or without the impressive Barry.

Joe Cole had a poor 45 minutes against France and was below par again in the Champions' League Final, when Hargreaves demonstrated his versatility by playing wide on the right. That position, of course, has been occupied in the last two games by the young tyro David Bentley and the old hand he is desperate to replace, David Beckham, who is due to arrive today from Los Angeles.

Unfortunately for all those players, Capello has announced his intention to play with two strikers, leaving one less midfield place available. After using Rooney as an unsuccessful lone forward in both previous games, he has decided his best position is as a second striker, leaving one berth open in Michael Owen's absence for three contenders to stake their claim over the next week: Peter Crouch, who has twice done well as a substitute, Jermain Defoe, and the uncapped Dean Ashton.

The US have a number of Premier League players including Tim Howard, Fulham's Clint Dempsey and Carlos Bocanegra, plus Jonathan Spector of West Ham. "Their players are fresh," Capello said. Terry and others must envy them that.

England (possible): James; Brown, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole; Beckham, Gerrard, Barry, J Cole; Crouch, Rooney.

Watch Capello's men take on the United States on BBC1 on Wednesday, 8.05pm kick-off

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