Revealed: the Eriksson plan to cope with loss of Rooney
By Matt Dickinson, Chief Football Correspondent
Carragher will play in anchor role
Owen upbeat despite injury scare
SVEN-GÖRAN Eriksson must prepare for the World Cup finals without Wayne Rooney and, remarkably, his plan promotes Jamie Carragher to the starting XI. The Liverpool defender will be deployed as a defensive midfield player against Hungary this evening to allow the England head coach to throw Steven Gerrard into the attack.
It is an unexpected elevation for Carragher but the country will hope that it unlocks the talent of Gerrard and Frank Lampard, two brilliant midfield players who have rarely worked successfully in tandem.
If all goes well at Old Trafford — and the plans are not disrupted by Michael Owen’s tight thigh muscle — the Swede will field the same, novel team against Paraguay in England’s first match in Germany on June 10. By then, he should be wiser as to whether Rooney has any chance of coming back into the side.
After talks between Eriksson and Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday morning, another scan on the Manchester United forward’s broken foot was, sensibly, scheduled for June 7. Rather than wait another week, it will allow England to assess the speed of Rooney’s recovery before Fifa’s deadline for withdrawing injured players on June 9.
“This was at my request and United understood the situation,” Eriksson said. “I can’t change the list after June 9 so it’s good to have a better idea what the future will be.” Coming three days after it was announced that Rooney would definitely be going to Germany and not scanned until June 14, the earlier check-up provoked concerns that there had been a setback. Those fears were exacerbated by a statement from United, which said that the injury “involves the joint” and would take longer to heal than the initial diagnosis.
However, Eriksson insisted that he still believed Rooney would play at the World Cup and that there had been “no change” in the assessment of the doctors. Sources with England and United both claimed that the striker, who has begun light running, remained optimistic although he may now stay behind to continue his recuperation when the rest of the squad flies to Germany next Monday. Jermain Defoe and Andrew Johnson remain on standby.
The scan on June 7 raises the prospect of England’s preparations for their opening match against Paraguay three days later being overshadowed by the latest, and possibly the definitive, Rooney bulletin and Eriksson said yesterday that he was fed up with talking about the will-he won’t-he saga. “Please,” he said, “let’s talk about a lot of other good football players in the squad.”
In Rooney’s absence, there are few more important players than Owen and there was a scare when he pulled up near the end of training yesterday with a tight thigh. He was taken for a precautionary scan but should play unless there is any recurrence overnight. That will not ease the displeasure of his club, Newcastle United, however, who complained last night that they had not been informed of their player’s condition.
Owen will be the attacking tip to a new-look England with Carragher in the holding role. Lampard will play close to Carragher, driving forward from midfield as he does for Chelsea. Gerrard will be pushed forward behind Owen in the hope that England can harness his attacking power, with David Beckham and Joe Cole operating on each flank.
Eriksson would not discuss his selection yesterday but he did confirm that he would start with the team that he believes will play against Paraguay in Frankfurt. While Carragher, and hopefully Gerrard, should be the beneficiaries, the obvious losers are Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves, who had hoped to play the holding role, and Peter Crouch.
Eriksson is likely to try more than one formation against Hungary, and against Jamaica in the final warm-up game, also at Old Trafford, on Saturday. If that includes Theo Walcott, the teenager will become the youngest England international, breaking Rooney’s record of 17 years and 111 days.
Gerrard free to strike fear into opposition
By Matt Dickinson, Chief Football Correspondent
THE clamour for Steven Gerrard to be given a more attacking role appeared to irritate Sven-Göran Eriksson last week and he even demanded of his inquisitors: “What, do you want him to play centre forward?” Perhaps he has been swayed by The Times campaign to “Unleash the G-force”, because he will free the Liverpool One and use him as an auxiliary striker against Hungary at Old Trafford tonight.
It is a formation, with Jamie Carragher thrust into the holding role, that had never been worked on before yesterday’s training session under Manchester drizzle. On the eve of the World Cup finals, Eriksson is still searching for his strongest line-up, but better late than never if it proves effective in coaxing the best club form from Frank Lampard and, in particular, Gerrard.
The Liverpool captain complained recently that he had only ever played 45 minutes in his preferred attacking role during more than six years and 40 appearances for England. Given Eriksson’s declaration yesterday that the starting line-up this evening is the one he has in mind to face Paraguay on June 10, Gerrard can be optimistic that, finally, he has been given the licence to rampage.
It is an exciting prospect, but if the system has an obvious flaw, it is that Michael Owen (provided that he is fit to start) could become isolated when England are under pressure. The Newcastle United striker is not built to be a lone forward and he cannot be expected to fend off defenders until the cavalry arrives.
England must also work hard to ensure that Gerrard is not continually taking the ball with his back to goal. If he is to add to his remarkable haul of 23 goals in this marathon season of 59 games (and counting), he needs to play as an attacking midfield player rather than a makeshift striker.
There are reasons to hope that it will work, even if the last time Eriksson burst out of his 4-4-2 tactical straitjacket, England lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland. Such a humiliating defeat might have put a man off experiments but, having failed so far to bring out the best in Gerrard and Lampard, it has to be worth a try. It seems fair to assume that the Swede would have persevered with his regular midfield pair in uneasy tandem had Rooney been fit, but the injury has forced a rethink and, if anyone should benefit from the Manchester United striker’s misfortune, there are few more deserving cases than Carragher. Eriksson had previously referred to the Liverpool stopper only as a reserve centre half and as a deputy for Gary Neville at right back, but he now has a chance of cementing a place in the World Cup starting XI.
A steadfast character, Carragher played regularly as a defensive midfield player in his younger days for Liverpool and for England Under-21. He is not the quickest but, as he demonstrated when playing with cramp in the 2005 Champions League final, there could be no more dogged and resolute figure to shield the back four while Lampard and Gerrard join the attack.
Asked this season if he regarded himself as a contender for the holding role in the England team, Carragher replied that he was “not good enough to do that for England. There are better players than me who can play there.”
It is a quote that could be used against him, and Eriksson, but Carragher’s modesty is one of his many qualities. He is not flash and will instead happily set about the dirty jobs this evening, the tackling and the mopping up, before passing the ball on to the more expansive Lampard and Gerrard.
The holding role had previously been set aside for Ledley King, but the Tottenham Hotspur captain was struck by the curse of the metatarsal. Michael Carrick might have been playing there but, in the B international defeat by Belarus last week, he fluffed too many of his lines. For him, the selection of Carragher is a hefty knockback. There was an expectation, too, that Peter Crouch might be thrust into Rooney’s position, but Eriksson did not exactly seize an invitation to extol the lanky forward’s virtues yesterday. The Swede appears more comfortable using the Liverpool man off the bench. All eyes tonight will be on his club-mates.
hmmmm ,strange
