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World Cup qualifying: England make heavy weather of new system [Mon Sep 5th, 2005]
London (Reuters) - England shuffled closer to next year's World Cup finals with a 1-0 win over Wales, without doing anything to advance their claim as potential winners of the trophy.
The switch to a 4-5-1 formation in Cardiff was supposed to give England three points and another string to their tactical bow at next year's finals in Germany, assuming they qualify.
The experiment was only partially successful.
Victory meant England are still two points behind Group Six leaders Poland, who beat Austria 3-2 later in the day, but hold the potentially group-winning card of a game in hand.
Three points in Northern Ireland on Wednesday would further strengthen their position before the two remaining qualifiers next month at home to Austria and the Poles.
However, the prospect of taking on the best teams in football next year with a 4-5-1 line-up that only just managed to see off a team ranked 83rd in the world is anything but reassuring.
The change in tactics, decided by Sven-Goran Eriksson in the absence of the suspended Michael Owen, left Wayne Rooney as a lone striker.
Support from the midfield was patchy, with neither Shaun Wright-Phillips nor Joe Cole providing the expected width on the flanks until the second half -- at which point, the former set up England's winning goal for the latter.
The net result was to soften the attacking threat which England usually carry through a 4-4-2 line-up headed Rooney and Owen, despite the amount of possession won in a congested midfield.
It was a mixed afternoon too for captain David Beckham.
Drawn into the middle, his long-ball passing in front of England's defence was superb but he is hardly a natural defensive midfielder in the mould of France's Claude Makelele or Italy's Gennaro Gattuso.
HAPPY BECKHAM
Happily for Beckham, the two men standing behind him, Rio Ferdinand and Jamie Carragher did not put a foot wrong all afternoon, while Luke Young did a solid job of replacing injured Gary Neville at right back on his first international start.
Together, they enabled England to distance themselves from last month's abject 4-1 friendly defeat in Denmark and the players clearly felt it was a mission accomplished.
"We had to get our confidence back up and I think we've done that with this game," Beckham said.
"There was a lot of talk about systems and, of course, they are important but the most important thing is the right performance ... The system worked at times and we kept the ball well. That's the ability we have in midfield."
An indication of how convinced Eriksson was by Saturday's display will come in Belfast, where Owen is available again.
The difference in class between the two sides should allow Eriksson to persist with 4-5-1, possibly by sacrificing Wright-Phillips or Cole in order to put Owen up front with Rooney not far behind in his more familiar deep-lying role.
Whatever the system, England should still edge nearer to automatic qualification, and a fall-back position for one of two qualifying slots for the best group runners-up.
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