Fabio Capello admits he is struggling to find out why England players do not reproduce their club form at international level.
The Italian said: “This is the problem my predecessors had. I’m hoping I’ll be able to understand why and rectify it.
“Looking at the English teams’ success in the Champions League, the Premier League is the best in the world.”
But Italy’s World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi says the problem is not the quality of the players but the quantity, arguing that Capello does not have good enough players to pick from.
Lippi said: “The problems for a coach happens when he doesn’t have many good players at his disposal.
“(Italy coach) Roberto Donadoni has a problem of abundance, while for Fabio Capello it’s completely the opposite.
“Capello, for example, has more problems fielding a strong English national team because only 38% of Premier League players are British.”
Speaking at an event organised by England team sponsors Nationwide Building Society, Capello added: “I can’t perform miracles, these are the players we have and I can only call up the players we have.
“Creating new players is a long process, it takes a lot of time and you need talent to begin with. It’s not going to be fast.
“Of course the more English players there are playing for English clubs the better it is for me.
“But at the same time it’s good to see that the good English players tend to play for the good English teams irrespective of the number of foreign players here. The quality comes out.”
The Italian confirmed that a permanent national captain would be unveiled before the friendly with the Czech Republic at Wembley in August.
“I think I need to see what their attitude is about wearing the armband, on the pitch and off it – that’s why I’ve not chosen yet,” said the England boss.
“I will choose a captain based on their attitude on the pitch and their behaviour off the field as well.
“A captain must be a leader. He must lead by example and set an example and drag the team forward. At the same time he needs to be a model outside the pitch and outside football.
“I will not decide until the new season, so the next two England captains are not necessarily going to be who the final captain will be.
“For the game we have in August, I plan to have my permanent England captain in place.”
