Time to be brave

Given the quality of the players at his disposal, Eriksson appears to have mastered the alchemist’s art in reverse. That the coruscating talents of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole can amount to so much less than the sum of their parts is a condemnation of their coach’s inhibiting, belt and braces approach. Because of the hidebound Swede, and his outmoded version of 4-4-2, any similarity between the game England are playing and that practised by Argentina, Spain, the Czech Republic and little Ecuador extends no further than the shape of the ball.

What had Eriksson made of the Argentinians’ electrifying 6-0 drubbing of Serbia and Montenegro? “I saw that — it was the best game so far,” he said. “Argentina are in very good shape very early. They played very well and are probably the best team, but Serbia and Montenegro needed to win so they had to attack, and if you attack too much against Argentina they will destroy you on the counter-attack.”

Could he envisage England stringing together 24 passes en route to the sort of goal with which Esteban Cambiasso illuminated the tournament on Friday? “That’s not our way of playing,” he said, provoking knowing looks from his inquisitors. “Not many European teams do that. It’s very much South American football, and Argentina and Brazil are the two best teams in the world at keeping the ball. It has always been like that.”

A fair point, but an attempt at something more progressive than “Route One” would be welcome. England could, and should, be so much better, but Eriksson will only let them off the leash in extremis. Until circumstances force him to try something different, he is content to rely on a rudimentary style that went out with the ark — or rather with Graham Taylor. Plan A is the long ball, pumped forward by the centre-halves in the general direction of the ungainly giraffe called Crouch. “Get it in the mixer,” as Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang used to say.

An unsightly, unsophisticated tactic, it reduces four of the best midfielders in the world to the role of scavengers, chasing the knockdowns and scraps the coaching fraternity call the “second ball”. It is an approach used by Taylor and Dave Bassett, more recently refined by Bolton’s Sam Allardyce, to gain results with limited resources, but England’s finest are not limited and exclusively “direct” football, to use the popular euphemism, is not only inappropriate, it will never win the World Cup. It should surely have dawned on Eriksson that after a dismal, sterile first half against Trinidad & Tobago last Thursday, they improved substantially and dominated the game with the introduction of Rooney and Aaron Lennon from the bench.

Rooney’s talismanic presence was always going to have a galvanizing effect, but the width and pace Lennon injected on the right wing was no less influential, and there is a strong case to be made for the inclusion of both from the start against Sweden on Tuesday, entailing a switch to the more adventurous 4-3-3. But don’t hold your breath. “Lennon was very good on Thursday,” Eriksson said. “He opened up the game for us with his dribbling.” So would the Tottenham tyro start against Sweden? “Maybe,” the coach replied, sounding highly dubious.

The coach indicated yesterday that it would be 4-4-2 again, albeit with some different personnel. He plans to omit two of the three England players who have been booked so far, and who would therefore be suspended if they were cautioned again. The three are Gerrard, Lampard and Crouch, and the likelihood is that Gerrard, whose abrasive approach makes him the most vulnerable to yellow cards, and Crouch will be the ones to stand down.

Fitness permitting (yet again), Eriksson wants to start with Rooney and Owen, and is thinking of bringing in Michael Carrick or Owen Hargreaves for Gerrard, in the midfield holding role. “Sweden will play with a diamond, as they always do, so that’s what I have in mind,” he said. “We discussed it this morning.”

England were always a better team when Rooney played. “Wayne is perfect when he’s 100%,” the coach said. “He is fantastic at dropping off the front and linking the play. He creates more combinations in the final third of the pitch than anyone else, and by keeping the ball up there he gives the rest of the team the time to push out.”

Dwight Yorke, formerly of Manchester United and now Trinidad & Tobago’s elder statesman, is a confirmed anglophile who wants England to win the World Cup, but at the moment he can’t see it happening. Articulating the need for change as well as anybody, Yorke said he would like to see more variety in their play. “It’s not really for me to say whether they can win the tournament as they are, but you would think they need to play more of a passing game,” he said.

“They have the players and the talent to do that and they need to mix it up more and play both ways — long and short. That’s what it’s going to take for them to progress.

“They’ve become a bit predictable. We studied them beforehand and knew exactly what they’d do. Crouch is a big target and it’s the easy ball out for them — to hit the big fella and try to play from there. But they can’t afford to do that all the time, and they’ve got clever players who should be able to mix it up and play the other way.”

Such criticism leaves Eriksson utterly unfazed. “I’m not bothered by what other people are saying,” he said. “It is not easy to play teams like Trinidad & Tobago when they just defend. Sweden had the same problems against them. We will play better football against teams who try to attack us. That’s only normal.”

To begin at the beginning, England were thoroughly disappointing against Paraguay in their first match when, risibly, they blamed their shortcomings on the weather. It was too hot, they said, prompting the tart response from one veteran of Italia 90 that the World Cup was always played in the summer, and that we would never win it again if heat and humidity was to be an acceptable excuse for inadequacy.

The way to conserve energy in such conditions is to keep the ball and not have to chase it, but the haphazard nature of England’s passing, and consequent reliance on the long punt towards Crouch, had them running unnecessary miles to retrieve possession when an economical, short game ought to have been the order of the day.

It was a further handicap that Michael Owen is not, as he purported to be, fully restored after that five-month layoff. Withdrawn in both matches so far, it is only Eriksson’s fingers-crossed insistence that his principal scorer “needs games” to regain optimum sharpness that will keep Owen in the starting line-up. “Like all strikers, he needs a goal,” the coach said. “He could have done with that header going in on Thursday.”

England beat Paraguay 1-0, courtesy of an own goal, but it was hardly the flying start they wanted. Fortunately for those concerned, who deserved unqualified criticism, there was distraction to hand in the four-square shape of Rooney, and the “stick” England deserved from the media was largely superseded by the saga of their star man’s fitness.

His metatarsal mended, Rooney had wanted to play from day one, but Eriksson, who had been warned off by Manchester United and by his own chief executive, Brian Barwick, opted not to take the risk. In training, however, United’s pocket battleship was, in the vernacular of the dressing room, “putting it about” and, with his team in need of a lift, the coach decided as early as last Monday that Rooney would come on for half an hour, at least, against Trinidad & Tobago. The other players were informed of this, but if the desired fillip was forthcoming, it was scarcely apparent for the first hour or so in Nuremberg on Thursday. For what seemed like an eternity, England kicked and rushed with such all-round ineptitude that Chris Birchall, the Port Vale midfielder, was the best player on the pitch. The chances Beckham and company were able to create were spurned with a profligacy that must have even the hardest Arsenal heart yearning for poor Jermain Defoe, who should be here, and who would surely have scored if he had been.

The pattern changed for the better early in the second half when Owen gave way to Rooney. At the same time Lennon replaced Jamie Carragher and England redeployed along 4-1-3-2 lines, with Beckham at right-back, behind Lennon, and Gerrard “sitting” in front of the back four.

Previously ponderous and predictable, the revamped unit was pacy and full of running, and the sustained pressure they were able to exert rendered a goal virtually inevitable. That said, when it finally came it was from what had been the unlikeliest of sources. When Graham Taylor took Carlton Palmer to Euro 92, it provoked much mirth among England’s rivals. “Why have you brought a basketball player?” the Dutch wanted to know. Crouch induces a similar reaction here and, after some truly woeful finishing, he was in danger of being laughed out of town until he grabbed the bull by the horns — or rather Gillingham’s Brent Sancho by the dreadlocks — and gleefully buried Beckham’s cross at the far post.

Whither England now? The short answer is Cologne, to play Sweden on Tuesday in the match that will determine who wins Group B and who finishes runners-up. A draw will be good enough for England who, in theory, will be able to choose who they play in the last 16. The winners of Group B play the runners-up in Group A and vice versa, and Germany take on Ecuador in Berlin in the Group A decider five hours before England v Sweden.

Conspiracy theories abound in such circumstances, but it is a moot point whether Germany are more dangerous than the South American dark horses, and after two poor games England should be looking for a confidence-enhancing performance against the Swedes, rather than considering any tricky-dicky manoeuvres. More than anything they need to get their team and pattern of play right for the tougher challenges that lie ahead.

Eriksson insisted there was no question of playing for anything other than maximum points. “Winning the group gives you certain advantages,” he said. “For example, you have one more free day before each game all the way to the final. So I definitely want to finish top, whoever that brings us up against. Anyway, it is 38 years since England beat Sweden, and I want to put that right before I leave.”