Football: World Cup: England secretive but assured

ENGLAND AT last left the storm-lashed Brittany coast yesterday afternoon for the sunshine of Provence but they continued to keep their own plans shrouded in mist.

Authoritative leaks from within the English camp suggest David Beckham, the only ever-present in the eight-game qualifying process, will be sacrificed to the return of Darren Anderton. But other sources hint that this is a smokescreen and, as in the build-up to Rome, all is not as it seems.

To some this is part of the World Cup game, every advantage is crucial, the cloak and dagger subterfuge as important as planning set-pieces. To others it betokens a lack of confidence in the team, a fear of defeat. Will the Tunisian game plan this afternoon really hinge on whether Anderton or Beckham plays on the right flank? Will they change their team if they discover Martin Keown is preferred to Gareth Southgate?

The most important aspect of planning a match is the opponents' shape and method, not, except in exceptional circumstances, their personnel. If England run out this afternoon with Michael Owen in attack, or play Beckham and Anderton and omit David Batty, the security guards on the training camp gate will be justified.

That is unlikely. In the era of mobile phones and ghosted columns, Hoddle's attempts at secrecy are as futile as most supporters' efforts here last night to acquire a ticket for the Stade Velodrome. Besides, the framework and main planks of the team are well-known. The only question marks in a 3-5-2 formation are at right-centre-back, where Southgate will probably prevail over Keown and Gary Neville, and in midfield, where Anderton is expected to displace Beckham and Paul Scholes assume the Paul Gascoigne role. In attack Teddy Sheringham should start but Owen may finish.

If this proves to be the side it is one designed not to lose when it might have been a team picked to win. Ideally Beckham would remain. Alan Shearer needs his crosses and he is a fine long passer, while Anderton would move inside to partner Scholes in front of Paul Ince. In practice, Ince and David Batty are likely to play behind Scholes.

Nevertheless England should have enough to begin the tournament with three points. Tunisia are competent but no more. Their key players are either injured (Hassan Gabsi), inconsistent (Zubeir Beya) or out of form (Adel Sellimi). They do have a genuine sweeper, but Khaled Badra is unlikely to have many chances to stride forward with the ball in the way Hoddle foresees an English player doing one day.

However, one of the lessons of this World Cup is that every team, whether Japan against Argentina or Scotland against Brazil, has periods of ascendancy. It is important for England is to monitor closely the likes of Sellimi and Mehdi Ben Slimane when Beya has a spell of threatening possession.

There are two other concerns for England: the officials and the fans. The referee, Masayoshi Okada, is a 5in 11in 40-year-old Japanese. His linesmen are from South Korea and South Africa. Hoddle would have preferred European officials, or failing that, South American representation. While the refereeing has, so far, been good England are concerned that the atmosphere and occasion may lead to a rash of yellow cards. Worryingly, some Japanese observers agree. Okada, who sent four players off in a World Youth Championship match, is not regarded as the best referee in Japan's J-League.

The atmosphere will be lively, maybe too lively given the breakdown in segregation evident at most games. The mingling of fans has been a bonus so far but English support always has that unwanted element. There has already been fighting, broken up by riot police, between English and Tunisian supporters in Marseilles' Vieux Port. Given the city's extensive North African links the English presence, though large, may well be outnumbered.

England are confident. Shearer said yesterday that before they left England Hoddle told the squad: "Look, we are going to win this thing."

His captain added: "He has tried to get it into our minds that we are good enough to go out there and put on a great show. He told us we had a great chance of winning this thing and we shouldn't let ourselves and our country down."

Shearer, while accepting "you live and die by the next game", added that snap judgements on England's chances should not be made on this 90 minutes. "The history of the World Cup tells us you don't see teams at their best until the third or fourth game."

Today should still go a long way to discovering whether England will reach a fourth game. Hoddle's declaration, though private, has the same ring of certainty as the one Sir Alf Ramsey issued before the 1966 triumph.

Before confidence edges into complacency, however, England would be wise to remember the Tunisian coach's own mark on English football history. It was from Henryk Kasperczak's pass, at Wembley in 1973, that Poland put England out of the 1974 finals and prompted Sir Alf's departure.

ENGLAND (probable): Seaman; Southgate, Adams, Campbell; Anderton, Scholes, Ince, Batty, Le Saux; Sheringham, Shearer.

Tunisia's shock troupe, page 26; Eamon Dunphy, page 27