By Myles Palmer
Sven-Goran Eriksson strikes me as a great reductionist.
He looks at his problem long enough to understand it and then comes up with simple solutions.
He decided three matches ago to rely on Seaman’s experience and the goals of Owen and Scholes.
The England team has changed a lot, so the key thing is to look at what has not changed.That will tell us what Sven thinks about the England team and its potential.
Most articles look at what he says. But it is more interesting to look at what he does.(Don’t get me wrong -I love what he says. Two days ago he said, “Mexico played 5-3-2 in their last two games.” I wanted to know that.)
Let’s start in Rome, where Sven watched Peter Taylor’s England team lose 1-0.
Peter is the son of Glenn, so England played 3-5-2 in that game
ENGLAND : James; G Neville, Ferdinand, Southgate, Barry; Parlour, Beckham, Butt, Dyer; Heskey, Barmby.
Substitutes used were: Carragher (Liverpool) for Butt, 25; Johnson(Derby County) for Barry, 72; Phillips (Sunderland) for Heskey, 72; Anderton (Tottenham) for Parlour, 77,Fowler (Liverpool)for Dyer, 82.
In February they beat Spain 3-0 in a friendly at Villa Park.
ENGLAND: James, Phil Neville, Ferdinand, Campbell, Powell;Beckham, Butt, Scholes, Barmby; Andy Cole, Owen, .
Subs: Gary Neville,Martyn, Brown, Ehiogu, Phillips, Sheringham, Fowler, Heskey, Lampard, Carragher, Wright, Ball, McCann.
Spain stopped trying after Barmby scored the first goal in 37 minutes.Then it was Heskey(55) and Ehiogu(69).
I liked this team and called it the Scholes-Barmby team. If you have two players who know where to run, the others can pass as they should, and the team can play football. England rarely play football.
Then they beat Finland 2-1 at Anfield.
ENGLAND: Seaman; G Neville,Ferdinand,Campbell,Powell;
Beckham (Heskey 72min), Gerrard, Scholes, McManaman;Cole
(Fowler 82min), Owen (Butt 90min)
The Finns scored with a header after 28, Owen levelled just before half-time and Beckham hit the winner in the second half. A fine goal,but Darren Anderton was a better player.
Then they played in Albania.
ENGLAND:1- Seaman; 2-G.Neville, 5-Ferdinand,6-Campbell, 3-Ashley Cole; 7-Beckham (captain),4-Butt, 8-Scholes; 11-McManaman,10-Owen, 9-Cole.
Subs: Phil Neville, Nigel Martyn, Wes Brown, Jamie
Carragher, Emile Heskey, Teddy Sheringham, Robbie Fowler.
As I remember it, England played badly for 74 minutes and then Owen scored.
Then Andy Cole made one for Scholes.Albania made it 2-1 after a boob by Rio Ferdinand.Then Andy Cole scored his first for England.
So what do Sven’s three team selections tell us?
Nothing, except that he likes Owen, Seaman, Scholes and Beckham.
Mainly, Sven is concerned with the psychology of the group. He knows that the England team is always changing. So he does not focus too much on team selection because that is out of his control, really. Many players he wants to use are unavailble to him for various reasons.
So, being a reductionist, he concentrates on what he can control or influence. The mood of the players.The self-esteem of the players.And he works out a game-plan the lads can understand.
It was so silly to ask him : Sven, you’re not taking the training, you’re letting Peter and Steve do everything.
Of course Sven was not taking training. He had only been here five minutes and he had to make quick judgements about serious matters.
So he was watching. He was watching every kick and every pass and every tackle and every facial expression like a hawk.
He was figuring out the character of each player, figuring out the balance of personalities that the team needed.He knows what they can all do technically, which is a lot less than some national teams, so he concentrates on shape, attitude, team spirit and solidity.
I think Sven has been a bit lucky so far.
But he can beat Mexico and Greece and put himself in good shape to beat Germany in September. It’s possible. If he does that, England are back!
Can he really play Heskey,Owen and Fowler together?
Nobody knows, but we will find out tonight.
We’ve already seen that Sven prefers to win games rather than play nice football. Later on, nice football might come.
He said Finland was the biggest game of his life. He said, “This is a whole country.”
He knows England have more desire than craft.They are better at being aggressive than they are at playing accurate passes.Those qualities are what Sven has decide to rely on for the time being.
He has some very skilful players, and a few tasty passers, but it was bottle that allowed England to come back and win after Finland went 1-0 up at Anfield.
25th May 2001.