'Maradona doesn't have a clue what he is doing'

Lee Dixon tells Robin Scott-Elliot that Brazil have lost their flair, why he fears for England and that Argentina will fall short

Right-backs don't do goals. At least not very often. Lee Dixon managed around one and a half per season over his two decades in the game, so when it comes to picking a favourite from the World Cup finals there is only ever going to be one option.

"Carlos Alberto in 1970," he says without hesitation. "Obvious reasons – being a right-back. I was about six when it happened but I've seen it so many times on TV that it feels as if I was there. It had everything from a purist's point of view. That was one of the goals."

Dixon has been entranced by the iconic golden shirts through his days as a young defender in the lower echelons of the English game, up to his peak at Arsenal and on to his new life as the rising star of Match of the Day. So when World Cup time comes around there is a tangible excitement about the prospect of marvelling at the next generation.

"I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to the World Cup," says Dixon. "I kind of want them to win because it's Brazil, they have got the best kit and all that. I do love everything about them."

He knows plenty about them, too. "They are not playing perhaps in the flamboyant Brazilian style that they are renowned for from the 70s, but they have an efficiency about them, and they do have some flair with Kaka. They play a bizarre way as well, their formation is really weird," he says. If there had been pepper and salt pots on the table you sense he would be enthusiastically rearranging them. "They sometimes play 4-2-2-2, very narrow down the middle, with licence to go anywhere they want – the two holding midfield players do a brilliant job for them. They are the team I want to win – after England, of course."

Dixon will be in South Africa as one of the BBC's pundits ("I hate that word"). At times when watching Match of the Day there is a sense that some occupants of the sofa would rather be elsewhere, the golf course for example, but there is none of that with Dixon.

Perhaps it is because he is a relative newcomer and given time his attention will stray – possibly, in his case, to the kitchen (more of which later) – but right now there is absolutely no distraction. For a man who played his first game for Burnley in 1982, he retains a freshness and enthusiasm for his sport. He is an easy conversationalist too. There are more arduous tasks than sitting in his west London club on a sunny morning chatting about football in general and June in South Africa in particular.

"Ossie Ardiles told John Motson that he thought Argentina would win the World Cup. Ossie reckons they are the best group of players they have had since he was in the side," he says. "Maradona made some weird changes but he [Ardiles] thinks the squad has settled since qualification. It would surprise me if they did, as it does look like Maradona doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

"When the tournament gets into the knockout stages, where it becomes a bit more tactical, players look at the bench if they go 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go, and I'm not sure he knows what to do. International teams with players of that calibre can get you through most things, like qualification, but to win it you need that bit extra.

"That's where you look at the flipside of having a manager like that. Take Fabio Capello – he's got a lot of work to do, but he's the complete opposite of Maradona. He seems very measured. He knows what he wants and the way he wants to do it."

Discussing how Brazil use the holding role, or the strength of Spain's bench (extra strong – Dixon has them as the team to beat) is a sure sign the World Cup is around the corner. Another sign is dissecting the make-up of the England squad and that work Capello has to do.

"Big concerns," says Dixon. "Normally everyone is, like, 'We're going to win the World Cup' by this stage but it is much more muted. There are so many question marks – about players coming back from injury, players out of form, players with personal problems. I'm not all doom and gloom but I am concerned. Apart from the forwards and central midfield, nowhere else is confirmed."

It is Capello's simple and decisive approach that has most impressed Dixon. "What stands out is that he has turned around pretty much the same group of players, with splits in the camp and with player power running rife. It's become a sort of classroom/teacher relationship. The discipline he has instilled is the best thing he has done. He has transformed the players, given them the leadership they didn't have under Sven.

"He will do whatever it takes to get to the next round, he's very single-minded and diligent. I think he has been brilliant. When it gets to a nitty-gritty bit of the game and the players look over to the bench, I'm pretty sure he will have some sort of answer for them."

But it's not all about football for Dixon these days. His main interest outside the game began as a business deal via the Arsenal connection – a share in a restaurant in Bray – but it has developed into firm friendship with the chef Heston Blumenthal, a regular at the Emirates.

"He is the equivalent of Arsène Wenger on the food front. He is a genius, a lateral thinker. I've done a bit of cooking with him – it's a bit of a nightmare, because he tends to take over. Funnily enough, he's never asked me to teach him how to take a throw-in."

Check out the Lee Dixon World Cup blog at www.freesat.co.uk/worldcup