‘No excuses’ for Eriksson if England fail to deliver

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON will have “no excuses” if England fail at the 2006 World Cup finals after being granted his four-week break ahead of the tournament.

Eriksson is looking to play a more expansive game, aspiring more towards the 'total football' of Holland in the 1970s than the efficiency of Greece's Euro 2004 triumph.

But the England coach, whose 50th game in charge is against Northern Ireland today, accepts that his success will be determined by trophies and that victories are more important than "champagne football".

Having been granted the extra week's preparation which he asked for ahead of the 2006 World Cup by the FA's board, Eriksson knows he is under increased pressure to deliver.

Eriksson admitted: "Will I have no excuses now? That might be true and it might also be true that the pressure on the squad and myself is bigger than it was before, but the pressure has always been there so I'm not worried."

England can take a major step towards qualification with victory against Northern Ireland at Old Trafford, followed by a win over Azerbaijan four days later at St James' Park.

"When and if we qualify for the World Cup, the interest will be huge," added Eriksson. "But we have to get there. I don't think you'll qualify or win the World Cup if you don't play good football. I want to do that and we're practising it but the most important thing in a qualification game is three points."

Joe Cole is set to be handed his first competitive start against Northern Ireland, probably on the left side of a four-man midfield also featuring Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and Frank Lampard.

That talented quartet should offer Eriksson the chance to play an offensive game, even if trying to match the fantasy football of Rinus Michels may be beyond them.

"I don't want to see headlines of England playing total football. But we'll try to play good football and we should do that with the players we have," he stressed.

Asked how many times England have reached their potential under him, the Swede responded: "Many more or less all the qualification games and many other times in the tournaments we've been in.

"I think we are more mature now and more experienced. We have an extremely good squad but those are just words and we have to show that we have improved on the pitch. I hope we can do that against Northern Ireland and then at the World Cup finals."