Sven's negligent players are in comfort zone

Eriksson cannot be blamed for the goalkeeping error any more than he can be blamed for the alarming failure of the English game to provide any international-class goalkeepers better than the 34-year-old once tagged Calamity James because of the regularity of his mistakes.

The only goalkeeping option for Eriksson at the moment is to introduce-Tottenham's Paul Robinson, largely untried at this level. It would be asking a lot of him to take over against the Poles, who can be formidably hostile, particularly when playing in Katowice.

Poland, of course, brought about the downfall of England's only World Cup winning manager, Sir Alf Ramsey. Their victory at home, when Alan Ball was sent off, and an epic draw at Wembley cost England a place in the 1974 World Cup - and Ramsey his job. The likelihood of the Poles inflicting similar damage on Eriksson's career prospects remain remote though they will be considerably encouraged by their 3-0 win over Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Wednesday's clash will be a true test of England's resilience and powers of recovery and, perhaps more important for Eriksson, will demonstrate whether David Beckham and his team-mates deserve the continuing loyalty of the Swedish coach.

Eriksson has barely uttered half a sentence of criticism during nearly four years as England coach and has had to bear the responsibility for increasing levels of negligence and indifference by some of his team.

Just as against France in Portugal in June, they threw away a winning position, leaving the coach to again explain why England consistently fail to live up to the unrealistic expectations heaped on them by the media.

The fact is that he couldn't explain why Beckham continues to underperform and drift aimlessly across the width of the pitch, why Michael Owen misses chances he once finished with aplomb, why England concede control in midfield or why James remains prone to catastrophic errors.

The suspicion remains that England have no Plan B. When it's going well the squadrons of coaches and advisors on the England bench all pat themselves on the back, as they did when Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard presented England with a twogoal lead in 64 minutes.

But when it isn't going well there seems little they can do to influence the situation.

Ultimately, England were muscled out of the game by Austria. who simply demonstrated greater physical commitment in the second half. Once this was a speciality of England's game and, even quite recently, players like Tony Adams, Alan Shearer and Paul Ince ensured that no one intimidated England. That's no longer the case.

Too many of Eriksson men's are happily ensconced in their own little comfort zone and the time is approaching when he may have to think the unthinkable and consider dropping the 'untouchables' like Beckham and Owen.

It won't be this week though. "The worst thing to do at the moment is panic and take out five players," he said. "There will be no revolution. I trust the players. They are the best we have and I'm sure they'll respond in a positive way."

For his sake, I hope so. He will be heartened, for instance, by the growing maturity of Jermain Defoe and the partnership forged on the left flank by Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge. There are nine matches and 27 qualifying points still to play for so all is not lost. England invariably stumble through the opening skirmishes of their World Cup campaigns, but then grow in strength and confidence. This one, I suspect, will be no different.