Capello, who has coached England as well as club giants including AC Milan and Juventus, said the lack of time spent with players at international level is the greatest obstacle.
"When you are the manager of a national team, it's very difficult to give some tactical identity to your team," Capello said at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai.
"This is because the time you get to spend with your players is so limited which makes it a hard job.
"The best thing you can do is make sure you create a winning mentality within the group.
"Above all, in my case as the Russian national coach, everything becomes more difficult because I always have to speak through my translator."
He said putting his own stamp on a national team while also staying true to the country's football identity is also a delicate balancing act.
"You have to convey your ideas but at the same time you must be careful not to turn the ideas of that country upside down," he said.
Capello said earning the trust and respect of players is the key to coaching success at any level.
"Through my experience, I have understood that to be a manager, the players have to acknowledge you as their leader," he said.
"Those players are the same 25 who judge you every day. They judge what you do, your results and your style, so you have to focus on their reactions time and again and learn from them.
"You have to relate to every player - both the good players and the average ones. The player is an individual, while you have to take care of the whole - the group of players, the club and try to achieve the targets that the club has set before the season.
"What I found at Milan and Juventus, which were two perfectly organised clubs, I did not find at Roma, where I had to struggle to impose a certain mentality.
"When I arrived in 1999, Roma were a side that were struggling and it took time. When I was at Real Madrid, as Pep Guardiola can also testify to because the same applies to Barcelona, you enter a club with a winning mentality.
"When you are a manager at Barca you can breathe the winning mentality. When in Madrid, it's the same.
"You must understand where you work and what you have to do. If you fail to perfectly blend in with the managers, the players and the team spirit, you will struggle."
