England v Switzerland:It is not the England players alone who are expected to undergo a metamorphosis over the next year or two.

This is also a challenge for Fabio Capello since, for the first time in his life, he has marched out of the club and on to the international scene, lured by the England post and a salary of up to €8 million. He and the footballers have to prove they can adapt.

The transition ought not to be agonising tonight in the opening match of his tenure, the friendly with Switzerland. These visitors have virtually gone incognito since the summer of 2006, when their position as co-hosts of Euro 2008 excused them competitive fixtures.

Kobi Kuhn's squad is also diminished by injuries. This evening's game may interest Capello mostly for the little clues it gives about the capacities of individuals in his side.

With his track record the manager could hardly fail to impress in the early weeks of his tenure. A disciplinarian was precisely the figure the public hoped for, since they hoped the miscreants would be harshly chastised for that 3-2 loss to Croatia at Wembley in November.

The squad will not thrive simply because it has, metaphorically, been sent to bed without its supper. If all it took to deliver honours was a martinet the FA would have head-hunted a bully and unsealed the trophy room decades ago. Capello offers much more than that and cannot suppose haranguing individuals is bound to transform them.

He will appreciate there was a time when the emollience of Sven-Goran Eriksson was deemed to foster feelings of security that brought the best out of England.

The new manager operates in a wholly different mode but the aim of whoever is in charge is always to organise the line-up so that its potential is realised. Even with double sessions Capello cannot bring that about, day after day, as he did at Milan or Real Madrid.

"When you are a club manager you can work on a daily basis to iron out the creases, create a group and stimulate the players," he said.

Tomorrow these men will be back with their clubs and the following international does not roll around for another seven weeks, when England play in Paris.

Capello may always have a grand scheme somewhere in mind but he will have to live with muddle and specialise in quick fixes, exactly like all his predecessors. He speaks about scrutinising the displays these players give for their clubs. There will, too, be an analysis of the Switzerland match so that in March he can detail all that went right and wrong. Nonetheless, there is an enforced detachment from the England team that will try Capello in ways he has never known.

The players are already having a novel experience, with several to be kept guessing about whether they will start against Switzerland until shortly before the bus sets off for Wembley. Yesterday it looked as though Wes Brown might be preferred to Micah Richards at right-back and Ashley Cole might have the edge over Wayne Bridge on the other flank. David Bentley was given hope of appearing on the right of midfield, with Aston Villa's Ashley Young on the left and Joe Cole in the middle of an attacking trio backed up by Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves as holding players. Wayne Rooney could then feature as the lone striker, to the exclusion of Michael Owen.

On the other hand, it may all be a bluff from Capello. England's acquaintance with him will start to develop properly only when the match kicks off. And he will have made his mark if the players struggle to get him out of their heads even when they are plunged back into the Premier League. - Guardian Service

Venue: Wembley Stadium Kick-off: 8pm On TV: BBC 1 (excluding Northern Ireland)