WORLD CUP 2006
England Tactics
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Nothing, it seems, will persuade Sven Goran Eriksson to depart from his beloved 4-4-2 formation – not even the foot injury to Wayne Rooney, which is likely to force a major rethink of Eriksson’s personnel.
In an ideal world, with Rooney fit, the front pair would be Rooney and Michael Owen in front of a central midfield pair of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, with David Beckham on the right and Joe Cole on the left. Plan B – tall target man Peter Crouch joining the attack – now becomes Plan A, but Eriksson has few attacking options in reserve.
An alternative would be to utilise Owen as a lone striker in front of a five-man midfield. A holding midfielder such as Michael Carrick or Ledley King playing behind Gerrard and Lampard would get round one of the main problems of 4-4-2, namely that both Gerrard and Lampard like to attack from central midfield, often leaving gaps for the opposition to exploit.
Joe Cole has been used by Eriksson as a secondary forward, but such a move would create a problem on the left of midfield.
In attack, Eriksson has few quality replacements to hand. Jermain Defoe is an obvious option, while the inclusion in the squad of 17-year-old Theo Walcott, is regarded as a huge gamble by the normally cautious Swede.
In defence, Eriksson has the opposite problem, with, at the last count, five centre-backs at his disposal: Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher and King. Ferdinand and Terry are the likely starting pair.
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