Capello: Jones can be as good as Baresi and Hierro

Fabio Capello said Phil Jones has the talent to play either in midfield or defence (Getty Images)

Fabio Capello has made the bold claim that the Manchester United teenager Phil Jones has the potential to be as good as Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro, two players who loomed large in the management career of the Italian.

It was in the aftermath of Tuesday's 1-0 win over Sweden in his customary press briefing away from the cameras at Wembley when Capello, usually fairly reticent when it comes to assessments of individual players, gave weight to his views on the 19-year-old. Having played Jones in a more advanced midfield role against Spain on Saturday, and in Scott Parker's customary holding position in the Sweden game, the England manager was effusive.

Although Jones had played higher up the pitch against Spain than against Sweden, it was in the second game he came closest to scoring after a run from deep through the Swedish defence.

Asked specifically about Jones, Capello said it is "difficult to find a player like him, really difficult.

"I have found in my career probably two players [of Jones' type]. He can play in different positions and always at the top level. He is a talent. He is so young. He is a big talent because when he receives the ball he plays always without fear. Good passes, good solutions. Every time, the best solution.

"For me, this [Sweden] game was really important, to see him play in front of the back four. Because if Parker will not be fit I have a solution. I [was] not sure it will be OK to play this position. He can play every other position but for me it was really important test for him."

Capello was asked who the other two players were to compare with Jones. "It was Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro. They played as midfielders and after they played centre-back. They were really good players."

Part of the Milan team which Capello inherited from Arrigo Sacchi, Baresi is a player to whom the England manager occasionally refers when he is discussing the best players he has coached. The last three years of Capello's playing career at Milan overlapped with the start of Baresi's. More than a decade later, Capello became manager and Baresi was part of the Milan team that won Capello's single Champions League trophy in 1994, although he was suspended for the final.

Hierro was in the Real Madrid team that won the Spanish title in 1997, in Capello's first spell at the club. Both Hierro and Baresi were capable, at their peak, of playing equally effectively in defence or midfield.