Mexico ultimate testing ground for Capello's final cut

London: Just as painters are happiest when there is paint on their hands, to feel properly alive, a football coach needs mown turf under his feet and the sight of footballers being drilled.

Fabio Capello can seldom have looked so invigorated as when he came off the pitch after England's first day of pre-World Cup training in Irdning.

For centuries people have visited the Alps for the tonic air and you did not need the readings from one of the oxygen masks Capello has issued to his players to know he felt in the rudest health on Wednesday.

Since taking charge of England in 2008, Capello has faced the frustrations that beset all international managers; the infrequency of get-togethers, the limited working time with players.

Thanks to John Terry, and a sparing fixture list, he has spent more man hours on crisis management than actual coaching since the end of England's World Cup qualifying campaign.

Wednesday was the moment when, for a limited but lovely period, Capello could resume the life he would consider himself made for: the day-to-day supervision of a squad.

There were no club bosses looking over his shoulder: at last Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, James Milner and the rest are his.

He will have players under his charge for as many as eight weeks (if England reach the World Cup final), his longest unbroken period with a group since leaving Real Madrid in June 2007.

Capello can finally begin proper team-shaping. Tactical decisions and selection dilemmas present themselves but he is savouring them.

Today's meeting with Mexico is pivotal.

"It will be a really important game because it will be the last one we play at Wembley this season in front of our fans and so we want to win," he said.

"For that reason the 11 who play will be, maybe not the first XI, but really good." Five of Capello's preliminary squad of 30 have never played under him and another coach would feel obliged to see Adam Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Ledley King, Scott Parker and Michael Dawson in a legitimate match before selecting his final World Cup 23.

Yet at Wembley and in Graz, where England face Japan next Sunday, Capello might use only Johnson, Carragher and King of those five.