Exhaustion preys on Eriksson's mind

England v Portugal: The winter break is still firmly in the coach's sights – and so is Leeds' golden wonder Smith

He arrived wearing the tan of a summer spent messing around in boats with his girlfriend Nancy Dell'Olio, but a period of post-World Cup reflection has clearly left him disinclined to alter the course of his footballing philosophy.

Sven Goran Eriksson was adamant, when he spoke at the Football Association's headquarters at Soho Square on Friday, that England's failings in the World Cup were attrib-utable predominantly to his players' exhaustion. Not to any dearth of technique or ability, or just as pertinently, to his own tactical shortcomings.

As the England coach prepares for the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign with a friendly against Portugal on Saturday at Villa Park, he insisted that "there won't be a revolution" in England's style, "because when we are fit, when we are not tired, we play very good football. We have seen it many times".

It is a response that will not satisfy his more venomous critics, who contend that other teams prospered despite their players being involved in equally demanding club seasons. But the Swede, who will continue to press for a winter break, maintained: "We gave the players blood and fitness tests over a year and we could see their levels decline. There were big changes between November, December and January and March, April, May. Then you can't train them very hard, because then you take out everything they have left."

He added: "I'm convinced that before the start of the World Cup we were tired. The players had come through a very hard, difficult season, starting in August. You can't expect us to push, push, push and be fresh, without any break. The only break the players had was when they got injured. It's a big issue for us to think about."

Eriksson insisted that England's elimination had not preyed on his mind. "I was only thinking about it for a couple of weeks, then it's finished. That's it. There are a lot of opinions, but I can't listen to every opinion."

And his analysis? "I was happy that we reached the quarter-finals and were only beaten by the team that won the World Cup, but it remains that we could have done better. We have to improve our passing play, although we defended rather well. We have to try to play good football in a big tournament for 90 minutes. Not just for 35 minutes."

And should he have made any changes against Brazil? "Well, we discussed telling our four defenders to stop attacking after half an hour, which is poor football, but maybe would have stopped their first goal. You never know. Maybe they would have attacked us even more because we were sitting back."

Injuries to Manchester United's Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Wes Brown and Gary Neville, together with Leeds' Robbie Fowler, will give the opportunity for him to scrutinise some new faces in the 23-man squad that will be announced tomorrow.

Leeds' Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate are available once more, and Chelsea's John Terry is too. "It's very good because now I'm a free man," said Eriksson, with a smile. "I can pick whoever I want. I was not obliged to do it before [refrain from picking players awaiting court proceedings], but I agreed to."

Eriksson watched Bowyer against Manchester City in Leeds' opening game and his assistant, Tord Grip, was at Birmingham yesterday. He was asked if the midfielder's character concerned him. "It would be very bad of me to judge a player without knowing him," he said. "I'm not referring to Lee Bowyer directly, but in life you can change. If you do something stupid, it doesn't mean you have to keep on doing stupid things."

Bowyer's clubmate Alan Smith, who was a revelation both in terms of his all-round play and his maturity in the European Under-21 Championships, appears certain to be called up. "Yes, he's very interesting," said Eriksson, who clearly values the striker's versatility. "You can see that he lives for football. He's a winner and he hates to lose." Nicky Barmby, who scored the first goal in Eriksson's tenure of the England team, is also in contention, while David Dunn has registered his intention of forcing his way into the England set-up with an authoritative start to the season. "If he goes on like this he will get a chance," the coach said of the Blackburn Rovers midfielder.

Eriksson was at West Ham yesterday, presumably with an eye on Joe Cole, Trevor Sinclair, Michael Carrick, David James and Jermain Defoe, though he believes the last-named needs more exper-ience. The choice of goal- keepers will be most intriguing. David Seaman is likely to participate for at least part of the game against Portugal – almost as a declaration of faith from Eriksson, following Seaman's misjudgment of Ron-aldinho's free-kick which ended England's World Cup. Leeds' Paul Robinson could be called up. If so, at the expense of team-mate Nigel Martyn.

Eriksson was questioned about several areas that troubled England supporters. They included England's apparent propensity for the long ball, particularly in the second half of the quarter-final. He maintains that he and and his coach, Steve McClaren, attempted to get the message across that it was not what was required. "It's not that we like to knock long balls, but if there's no movement because they have no energy that's the last alternative you have," he said.

It was suggested to him that England lacked passion at some stages. "That's what it looked like, but I wouldn't use the word passion," he retorted. "I would say we were exhausted. We tried to attack, but when you don't have the energy it's very difficult. Also some of the very important players were coming back from injuries. I will take the responsibility for that. You could ask me about Beckham. Should he play or should we take another player? My decision was that we should take Beckham even if he is not 100 per cent. If you take away players like Scholes, Beckham and Gerrard, I don't think we can win the World Cup."

Sir Alex Ferguson publicly questioned the wisdom of taking Beckham to Dubai for the pre-tournament get-together. But Eriksson maintained: "Sir Alex has his opinion and I respect that. But as captain it was important that he should come out with us. I didn't want all the speculation about the captain not being in Dubai. It would have been a nightmare out there, with all the focus being on Beckham in Manchester."

Eriksson was also asked whether the players might have responded against Brazil to a more animated response from their coach. "I never think that jumping, screaming and whistling helps players," he said. "What sort of information do they get from me that way? Anyway, at my age of 54 it will be very difficult to change."

So, England embark on the next stage of the Eriksson era with a spirit of only qualified optimism. Asked how, if his players are still faced with the same club schedule in 2004 and 2006, they can improve on this summer's performance, he thought for a minute and then replied: "That's a very good question." And one which will be much debated.