What's wrong with Beckham?

The trouble is that Beckham is no longer providing the inspirational kind of performances that have been central to England's improvement during Eriksson's three years as coach.

Although the Swede insists otherwise, the England captain's game lacks the smooth, well-oiled rhythm we automatically associate with a player of his status. His general physical condition must be good for him to be in the team, but occasionally he looks uncomfortable when running at pace.

"I'm not concerned," stressed Eriksson. "I don't think he played badly against the French. He showed a lot of discipline and worked hard.

"Maybe he can play better but when you look at the work he does I can't complain."

That is certainly true. No one can question Beckham's commitment to England's cause and, as the captain, he needs to lead by example.

But he was poor in the 1-1 warm-up match with Japan in Manchester, left the field at half-time in the 6-1 win over Iceland to have an injectionin a 'cyst' in his back and, apart from the free-kick that provided Frank Lampard's goal, failed to impose himself on the French.

England needed a big game from Beckham and instead got a performance I felt was tailored to his physical capabilities.

His move to Real Madrid and revelations about his family life have caused him and his family distress and we must hope these pressures are not bearing down on him at the moment when his country needs him to be fully focused on a difficult job.

I suspect, because of his global celebrity, Beckham feels a need to produce a supercharged performance every time he plays for England.

This is not necessary and is counter productive.

Against the French he wandered infield too often and tried too many spectacular long passes. I'd prefer to see him wide on the right concentrating all his energies on his specialist subject - centres of excellence.

Michael Owen was an isolated figure against the French and would have benefited from a better service from Beckham who, with Ryan Giggs on the left, gave Manchester United the best attacking wide players in Europe for nearly a decade.

Pointless at the bottom of Group B, England need to win their next two matches so scoring goals becomes an essential equation in Eriksson's match plans.

A cool and logical coach, he must tell Beckham to forget Zidane-type spectaculars and concentrate on doing the simple things well.

He is 30 next year and knows he won't get too many more chances to make a name for himself among the great names of international football.