12 June,2009 09:38 AM IST | | AFP
England coach Fabio Capello believes Wayne Rooney will be an even more devastating striker by the time the 2010 World Cup kicks off in just under a year.
Rooney fired England to the brink of qualifying for the finals in South Africa with a brace in Wednesday's 6-0 victory over Andorra at Wembley.
Capello's team need one more win to make their progress official and that could come in September's home clash with Croatia.
But Capello knows England have to do more than just qualify. Only a serious challenge for the World Cup will do for one of the game's biggest football nations and Capello is confident Rooney is the man to help them do just that.
The Manchester United star has enjoyed a superb season on the international stage. His 10 goals this term came in only seven matches and matched Gary Lineker's England record for international goals in a season.
Capello has helped revitalise the 23-year-old at international level but the Italian expects to see a further improvement as Rooney matures with club and country.
"Wayne is young and he can improve," Capello said. "I accept it is more a case of going upwards a little bit from 90 percent rather than 70 percent but he can improve three or four percent and that is very important.
"I have been very happy with Wayne. This season he has done very well. He is in a fantastic moment right now and I hope he is the same next year."
Between them Rooney and Steven Gerrard will carry the hopes of a nation on their shoulders next summer.
The pair have been major factors in England's seven-match winning streak and it was in recognition of those efforts that Capello opted to take the pair off at half-time against Andorra with the match already won.
Given replacement Jermain Defoe scored twice and fellow striker Peter Crouch profited from some abysmal Andorran defending, the move almost certainly cost Rooney his first international hat-trick.
However, while he may be notoriously reluctant to take a break, Rooney has been urged to see the bigger picture.
"Wayne didn't say anything when I took him off," Capello said when it was suggested the Merseysider might not have been too impressed to be substituted.
"You have to respect the people who play but you also have to respect those who were on the bench.
"There are no big egos in this group. It was good for people like Defoe and Ashley Young to get a chance. That is the spirit we have."
Capello knows the real test for England comes in South Africa but he is convinced they now have the confidence to take on the world's best.
"The fear is going," he said. "It has not gone yet but it is going."
Asked to cite the moment when he knew his work was paying dividends and Capello immediately comes up with that momentous night in Zagreb, when Theo Walcott scored a hat-trick to stun Croatia.
"That game was very important," he said. "We played with confidence and the result gave us even more."
