Although Rooney endured an injury-ravaged Euro 2008 qualification campaign, Capello knows the Manchester United striker will be one of his main weapons when the battle begins for a place at the next World Cup in September.

Like Sir Alex Ferguson, Capello feels Rooney tries too hard by straining every muscle in his team's cause.

And the Italian is determined to find a way to get Rooney back to the form which saw him light up the international stage at the last European Championships in Portugal.

"When I saw Rooney in Portugal, he played very well," said Capello. "He has to play like he did then.

"I feel the same as Sir Alex Ferguson

"I have spoken with Rooney maybe three times now. And I've said to him that he is too generous.

"He has been trying to do too much. He needs to play in the best position for him. He needs to be more selfish, otherwise he is tired and not fresh.

"It is important to be fresh near the goal."

Rooney could certainly do with a goal or two to bolster a recent poor scoring record, by his standards, that has seen him find the net just three times in 14 international games - a run stretching back over two years.

Capello thinks he has the answer.

After initially trying Rooney as a lone striker, then on the left and right, the Italian is now certain the 22-year-old's best position is behind a main striker, likely to be West Ham's Dean Ashton against the United States tomorrow.

Ashton has his admirers but is clearly no Carlos Tevez.

Yet Capello feels it is a way of drawing the best from his chief goal threat.

"Rooney is a versatile player but his best position is as a central striker, just behind the person who plays up front," he said.

"That way he can play with his face to the goal rather than his back. You need someone more advanced but then the other can move around him."

By moving around, Capello means moving around the opposition box rather than scampering into full-back positions making tackles, as he tends to do with both United and England.

The difference is that while there is enough talent around him at Old Trafford to enable Rooney to take a breather, for England the options are limited in the extreme.

"Rooney is very important to us," said Capello.

"His potential is huge but he can do better. He knows he must stay in front of goal more. He knows he must score more goals.

"He has won a lot - but not enough."

It is that kind of phrase from Capello which will find more resonance with Rooney than predecessor Steve McClaren could ever hope to achieve.

Given the likes of Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger were not available to the FA, it is perhaps entirely understandable they went for Capello, whose vast CV should at least help get more from his players as they look to atone for the sorry mess they made of attempting to reach this summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland.

And as England reach the halfway point of the five friendlies to be played prior to the first competitive game - against a part-time Andorra side that heaped embarrassment and humiliation on McClaren during a goalless first half in Barcelona last year - Capello has already set his mind to solving a midfield puzzle that so consistently fails to get the best from either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard.

"Tomorrow, I will try to find a good position for Gerrard," he declared.

"It's possible it will involve an axis with Wayne Rooney but you have to remember it is not one or two players that decide a game, it is the team.

"Overall, we need more intensity and more speed in our game.

"We need to press more. You could say we need more of an English-type game."