HE was supposed to be different. Our knight in shining armour, riding to the rescue after his two predecessors had failed us so badly.

Fabio Capello arrived on English soil waving an iron fist, promising that the days of yielding to reputations and past achievements were gone and that a new era was dawning for our national team.

'Hallelujah!' we cried. The saviour of English football has arrived. Sure enough, we started to play the type of football that we had all dreamed of. And the results followed. Before we knew it, we had thundered through the qualifying stage to book our place in South Africa at the World Cup, finally exorcising those demons of 2008, when the Wally with the Brolly failed to lead us to the European Championship finals.

But yet here we are, just a week before the start of the greatest tournament on earth, and I'm starting to get that familiar sinking feeling. It feels a bit like betrayal, with a strong hint of negativity.

When Capello stepped foot through the doors at the Football Association we were greeted with refreshing proclamations of teams being picked based on form and not reputations, as was the norm in previous, more lenient, regimes.

However, that philosophy appears to have been discarded somewhere along the line, to the point that players who have endured turbulent seasons with their club sides – or who have barely featured at all – are now carrying the hopes of a nation as they head to South Africa.

This week, the 23-man squad that will represent England at the World Cup finals smacks of hypocrisy and over-cautiousness.

I, for one, was rapt with excitement at the prospect of an adventurous 4-3-3 formation that Capello was supposedly experimenting with ahead of the finals.

It saw Gareth Barry anchoring a midfield trio that also boasted Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, seemingly solving the age-old conundrum of how to fit the talented duo into the same formation, without compromising their natural instincts to get forward.

The system also deployed two flying wingers in the shape of Theo Walcott and Aaron Lennon either side of Wayne Rooney up front. Perfect, I thought. Rooney has thrived on the service from Nani and Antonio Valencia in a similar formation at Manchester United this season. His goals return for club and country? 43.

Maybe Capello has got it spot on after all. Wrong. Those tactics were quickly dispensed with and a 4-4-2 formation ushered in. Of course, Lampard and Gerrard simply must play in the same team, just not in the middle. What, then, should we do? I know, let's shove the Liverpool skipper out on the left, a bit like Lionel Messi or Ronaldo. Never mind that Gerrard's game is best served driving through the middle in support of the strikers, as has been seen for all those years at Anfield.

Then we have Emile Heskey up front with Rooney. You know, the Aston Villa man that can't get in to Martin O'Neill's starting XI. Sure, it's worked before, but would you be willing to put your money on Heskey delivering against the best the world has to offer? I didn't think so. In case you were wondering, it's six – the number of goals Heskey has scored this season.

If it's not Heskey, it's Peter Crouch up front with Rooney. I'm a huge fan of Crouch and his scoring record for England is second to none. But he has yet to be tested at the highest level, and I would be more tempted to see him thrown on as an impact substitute as a second option.

Heskey's inclusion in the final travelling party to South Africa is a classic example of Capello abandoning his form strategy. That said, I can understand why he has got the nod ahead of Darren Bent, given that the latter's qualities lie in a similar field to those of Jermain Defoe. It seems illogical to take both.

Which brings us to midfield. Initially, I was in uproar over Walcott's omission from the 23-man squad. I still think he should be on the plane – pace is the bane of defenders all over the planet. But it has come to light that he has not be following team instructions, despite Capello so desperately wanting him to succeed. Fine. But don't replace him with a player that has also struggled to break into his own club team. Shaun Wright-Phillips is a fine player, but he has been overshadowed by Adam Johnson at Manchester City, and it is the former Middlesbrough winger that should have got the nod over his team-mate. He has displayed an unrivalled fearlessness at Eastlands and has the best delivery of the entire squad; a service that would be meat and drink to Rooney. However, he too has been omitted, seemingly solely on a lack of experience at international level. Bad move.

This week Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp criticised Capello for ignoring Michael Dawson and Scott Parker, making them feel like 'ghosts' at their Austrian training camp. The pair, it is now clear to see, were taken as no more than passengers to make up the numbers. Reports suggest Parker excelled in training, but he was not given one minute of game time against either Mexico or Japan, England's final warm-up games. The same can be said of Dawson. Both have been two of the outstanding English players in the Premier League this season, but instead Michael Carrick and Matthew Upson have been taken in their stead; one of which has failed to hold down a regular place at Manchester United, while the other has had a decidedly shaky season at the back with West Ham.

So it seems form, the buzz word for Capello when he took charge of this England team two-and-a-half years ago, has been lost from his limited vocabulary.

They say fortune favours the brave. Our lions will have to display that quality in spades if they are to end their 44-year drought for the biggest prize in world football, because it is a virtue that has deserted their manager.