Eriksson lays it on line for England
Sven-Goran Eriksson has warned that England must improve their passing if they hope to revive their World Cup qualifying hopes by defeating Argentina.
Eriksson believes his side’s inability to keep possession was their main downfall in a lacklustre second-half display against Sweden.
Indeed, worrying shades of England’s shortcomings at Euro 2000 were again evident as players who rarely suffer such problems at club level suddenly started giving the ball away all too easily in a major tournament.
Eriksson sees no room for panic, stressing he was satisfied with his team’s first-half display amid ‘‘two games in one’’, and it is not as if his players lack the technique to pass the ball.
However, he knows their problems, such as tiredness and defending too deep, all stemmed from the same root causes - conceding possession too cheaply and not holding the ball up well enough.
‘‘If you can’t keep the ball, you will always have difficulties,’’ he admitted.
‘‘You get tired very quickly when you have to chase the ball.
‘‘We didn’t defend very well as a team. The back line did well but when you can’t keep the ball in midfield and up front, life is very difficult.
‘‘If you can’t keep the ball, then your confidence goes very quickly, especially against teams as strong as Sweden.’’
The greatest worry for Eriksson is how his team revert to hopeful long balls forward when their high tempo, swift-passing, counter-attacking game breaks down.
To change that is akin to altering the culture of English football. The answer is as simple or as complicated as you like to make it.
Eriksson must simply press home the importance of his team retaining their shape and composure, while producing better movement to give their team-mates more varied passing options.
He does at least believe Argentina will pose a different challenge to Sweden, given that they will not be looking to press England as quickly.
‘‘It will be a quite different game with fewer long balls from the opponents.
There will be a different kind of problem compared to playing against Sweden,’’ he added.
‘‘But if we want to do something positive against Argentina, then we’ll have to do it for more than 45 minutes.’’
It is abundantly clear that England miss the influence of the injured Steven Gerrard, although there is little to be gained by wishing for the impossible.
Eriksson insisted: ‘‘I refuse to talk about Steven Gerrard or other injured players out here. I wish him good luck but he’s not here and that’s it.’’
