Frank the footman carries out his duties

The Fabio Capello England bandwagon kept on rolling at Wembley with a solid win over a competent Ukraine side.

The Italian seems to have instilled a winning mentality into his side and even when Andriy Shevchenko equalised for the visitors, an England victory always looked like the only outcome.
Although England received a reality check against Spain in Seville in February, the side has come a long way.

The former Milan and Real Madrid boss seems to be achieving the old trick of getting the best out of his players and the team are playing with confidence.

Most pundits and journalists have been waxing lyrical about the way Capello has managed to get the best out of both Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, with both men enjoying the same freedom they play with at club level.

But perhaps a more impressive change from Capello’s point of view is the way he has changed the mentality of Frank Lampard.

The Chelsea midfielder has experienced fluctuating fortunes during his international career, reaching the highs of England player of the year and the lows of boo-boy.

Under Capello his performances have almost crept under the radar but the Italian himself will certainly be impressed with his industrious efforts and shows of team responsibility.

Playing more of a holding role for his country, Lampard has reinvented himself as a highly effective cog in Capello’s well oiled machine – as opposed to the free-running individual of his early days that he still displays at club level.

He has been playing alongside Gareth Barry in the midfield engine room but the Aston Villa player is not the same kind of sitting player as Claude Makelele or his Chelsea successor John Obi Mikel.

It is easy to get world class players such as Gerrard and Rooney and get them to play with freedom and licence, it is much harder to take players used to that liberty to restrain their attacking instincts and play a disciplined role for their teammates.