Eriksson secret is lucky for England

13 April 2012

As the majority of us were drifting gently and contentedly back to earth today, it was back to business for Sven-Goran Eriksson and his England heroes.

While we all tried and failed to explain the unexplainable and wonder why we did not think to put a tenner on England to beat the Germans 5-1 at odds of 160-1, the contemplative Swede began carefully plotting towards his next goal, victory over Albania up at Tyneside on Wednesday night and another significant step towards next summer's World Cup finals in Japan and Korea.

This annihilation of the Germans, unbelievable though it still seems, is no fantasy.

Whether we danced in the London fountains, woke the baby with our cheers or wished our father had still been alive to have seen it, we all savoured the moment.

Eriksson is no exception. I cannot imagine him ever hogging the karaoke machine but, as a football coach of some experience, he will know that results and performances like that of Saturday night come along but rarely and he will have enjoyed it all in that understated way of his.

He had his detractors, especially when his name was first linked with the position vacated by Kevin Keegan. There were those, like the Football Association, who felt the foreign route was the way forward; there were others who did not altogether agree with a foreigner becoming national coach but could not think of anyone in England who would or could do the job; there were many who dismissed the whole concept as a betrayal of the country's football heritage.

The latter group have shrunk in numbers since Eriksson's first England team beat Spain in a friendly. After the momentous events of the weekend, they must now be all but non-existent.

What is Eriksson's secret? Is this studious Swede really a genius, a football evangelist, a sort of Scandinavian Billy Graham? Or is he just plain lucky?

Eriksson may well have his secrets but, when it comes to sending a team out in front of 60,000 people and millions of others watching their televisions, it is not easy to keep things hidden away.

His big advantage, and one which, to his credit, FA chief executive Adam Crozier identified when he decided on going outside these shores for the next English coach, is that Eriksson came with no previous: no preferences, prejudices or peccadillos.

He was detached, a neutral who had no favourites.

On Saturday night, as all England went wild, he had time amid the euphoria to spare a thought for his opposite number, Rudi Voller, his side humiliated in front of their own fans and his father lying gravely ill in hospital.

He struggled, like all of us, to make sense out of a scoreline from football fairyland. He understood why it was so special for the country but he could never feel, like the Englishmen out there on the pitch, up in the stands and sitting alongside him on the bench, the relief which accompanied the exorcising of all those ghosts of Turin and Wembley.

Reserved by nature, it has not been difficult, so far, to keep his distance, look at the job objectively. It may, perhaps, be more tricky one day in the future, if and when England come up against Sweden and he has to plan the downfall of his country of birth by his adopted land of opportunity.

Eriksson has made many decisions since he took charge, most of them right ones but none more pivotal than his chosen system. A four-man defence seems to sit more comfortably with our players, as they have proved in a succession of games.

Has he been lucky? In terms of players at his disposable, he has certainly been fortunate.

His predecessor, Keegan, may have had his faults but there were some things which were outside his control. Injuries to key players such as Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard took their toll and the leftback position was always a problem for him.

Since Keegan's departure, Arsenal's Ashley Cole has come impressively on to the scene, giving the defence balance, fresh pace and more direction.

Cole was only one of a clutch of promising young players but how could you leave out yeoman performers like Tony Adams or Alan Shearer, who had scored 30 goals in 63 England appearances but beginning to lack the mobility that the modern game demands?

Shearer solved the problem by calling it a day after Euro 2000 and Adams followed him into international retirement soon after.

Peter Taylor, in charge for the friendly against Italy last November, set the tone when he selected a team of 30-year-olds and under. Eriksson has continued the theme.

Since then he has been "lucky" in that most of his main players have remained hale and hearty but the canny Swede knows that can all change - and quickly.

So far the pendulum has been swinging his way but one wrong move and it can cut off your vitals.

He knew he had a fight on his hands to qualify for the 2002 finals but, after Saturday night in Munich, it is a scrap he looks like winning.

He knows the nation will then expect big things in Japan and Korea next summer and he will try to deliver.

The long term plan, though, is another four years after that, back in Germany, when Owen, Cole, Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and most of the rest should be at their peak.