| Sven-Goran
Eriksson on Wednesday night insisted England were on the right track
despite an insipid performance in their goalless friendly with Holland
at Villa Park. Eriksson said: "It was a much better performance
than in Spain. In the first-half we created a couple of occasions
and should have scored but it was good quality."
And he supported Wright-Phillips after a performance which did
nothing to justify the clamour for the City winger.
"In the first 10 minutes it's normal to be nervous when you
are starting for England," said Eriksson.
"The career of Wright-Phillips has gone up, up, up very quickly
and next time he starts he will be less nervous. He's very confident,
he's young, he has talent."
But Eriksson insisted the 4-3-3 formation, with David Beckham,
Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in midfield, had worked, even though
he refused to say whether England would employ the same tactics
for the World Cup qualifier with Northern Ireland next month.
"At least I know we can do it," said Eriksson. "Are
we going to play like that against Northern Ireland? I haven't thought
about that but I thought it worked well against Holland. If you
have Shaun Wright-Phillips in the team this is a good system. Rooney
is used to playing on the left with Manchester United and for long
periods the midfield did well."
Eriksson also defended his decision to play Johnson on the right
in a passionless second half because Michael Owen needed to play
a full 90 minutes.
"Andy Johnson was very happy to come on," said Eriksson.
"He was very happy to be picked. I talked to him at half-time
and told him I didn't want to change the formation. Michael Owen
needed to play 90 minutes because he has not been playing much football
with Real Madrid. I know Andy Johnson normally plays up by himself
but he did well on the right." |
