Capello: I knew we would be terrible after seeing warm-up

Fabio Capello believes that many of the older England players carry 'baggage' which means they cannot perform at international level (REUTERS)

Fabio Capello has admitted he had a moment of clarity before Tuesday night's insipid 1-0 win over Wales at Wembley, when he realised that his England players' approach to the warm-up was so bad that he feared for their performance in the Euro 2012 qualifier.

Capello (right) confessed in a late-night press briefing on Tuesday that he harboured major concerns about his players before the game, and since then it has emerged that he is planning a major shake-up of the England team after qualification for Euro 2012 is ensured. His changes could mean that the likes of Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry and former captain Rio Ferdinand are phased out before the tournament next summer.

England need only one point from their final Euro 2012 qualifier against closest rivals Montenegro in Podgorica on 7 October but Capello made no secret of the fact that he was concerned by his team's approach to Tuesday's match. Asked afterwards whether he had any clue before the match that England might be off the pace, Capello said at first that he had "understood something" about his team that night.

Pressed on what he had seen in the players before the match, the England manager said: "When I go to the pitch before the game, because I like to see the warm-up, sometimes in my career I understood a lot of things about what would happen on the pitch [from what he saw] during the warm-up." He was asked if he thought the players were not sharp enough. "Sometimes," Capello replied.

What did he discover about his players? "That is between the players and me." Did he know the game would be difficult after watching the warm-up? "Yes, I knew."

Pushed on whether he could have changed the players' mindset in the few minutes between them coming into the changing rooms and going back out for the game, Capello said: "I tried. I spoke with the players, said things, but it is impossible, with the things that I saw, to change."

Asked why it was impossible to change, Capello replied: "Because it was not [as simple as] to change the shirt [ie a relatively superficial solution]. Here was the problem [he tapped his head]." Subsequent clarification from sources around the Capello camp of the England manager's comments, uncharacteristically frank by his standards, has revealed that he was particularly dismayed by the lack of effort in a five-a-side passing game. One source said that Capello thought the standard of the warm-up was "rubbish".