Eriksson thanks Chelsea boss for transforming Cole’s career

SVEN-GORAN Eriksson has thanked Jose Mourinho for transforming Joe Cole’s career as he insisted that he would not swap his new-look England midfield with any other quartet in the world.

Eriksson has tried to make Cole a more disciplined player by restraining his creative urges and requiring him to track back and defend more often.

But it has still taken Mourinho’s influence to complete the process, with Cole rising to the occasion on his first competitive start for England in their 4-0 victory against Northern Ireland.

Eriksson, who also backed the central midfield partnership of Lampard and Gerrard, declared: “I can say thank you to Jose Mourinho, I’m glad to say that.

“I have always talked to Joe Cole, but I only have him now and then so it’s a bit more difficult for me. But the important thing is that he has become another football player. I don’t know what Mourinho did with him, but if you are the club manager, you work with him every day and explain things to him.

“If it was needed when I was a club manager, I would say ‘do what I ask you to do or you will sit on the bench’. It’s very easy.”

Eriksson, who is set to pick the same team against an Azerbaijan side outclassed by Poland, is also benefiting from having Cole, as well as Chelsea team-mates Lampard and John Terry, in prime form.

“The Chelsea players are very good and, of course, when you play in a team that is winning more or less every game, their confidence goes up,” he observed.

“There are not many better central midfielders than Frank Lampard, I’m quite sure about that.

“But I wouldn’t change these four midfielders with anyone.

“In fact, I have always said that if we have almost all the players fit, then we have an excellent team.

Meanwhile Arjen Robben has revealed his latest injury rules him out of the first leg of Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich.

A scan yesterday revealed that Chelsea’s 21-year-old Dutch international winger has suffered a strained ankle tendon.

Robben will be re-examined on Tuesday or Wednesday but he told Dutch television programme Studio Sport he will still be out of action when Chelsea host Bayern on Wednesday, April 6.

“It is difficult to say how many weeks I will be out, but it is clear that it (the injury) is not good,” he told Dutch television programme Studio Sport.

“Armenia (on Wednesday) and Bayern are out of the question in any case.”

The news appears to rule Robben out of Chelsea’s trip to Southampton on April 2, and he is also doubtful for the clash at home to Birmingham on April 9.

Chelsea visit Munich for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern on April 12.