Gerrard dismayed at Danish drubbing

STEVEN GERRARD has described England’s performance in Denmark as ‘a shambles’ and urged manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to call an emergency meeting to discuss problems arising from an embarrassing 4-1 defeat.

Gerrard believes it is time for England’s highly-paid superstars to talk through the Copenhagen disaster in a serious heart-to-heart ahead of crucial World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Northern Ireland next month.

England travel to Cardiff on September 3 and Belfast on September 7 and they could hardly be in worse shape following a dismal performance in midweek - their worst defeat in 25 years.

Three goals inside seven second-half minutes sealed their fate in a friendly against the Danes and made a mockery of pre-match suggestions that England were on target to be favourites for next summer’s World Cup Finals.

Liverpool midfielder Gerrard believes the performance will bring expectations right back down to earth and has urged swift action to prevent England’s World Cup dreams evaporating even before the tournament begins.

He said: “We have to do better. We’ve proved over the last couple of years we can play against quality teams and hopefully it was just a bad night in Denmark. It all went wrong in the second half and we need a good sit down before the next two qualifiers and we need to go back to basics.

“Everyone wants to do well at the World Cup and the expectation is justified because it’s about time we did deliver. But if we go into the World Cup playing like that we’ve got no chance.”

Gerrard admits he was astonished by the way England collapsed after the break in Copenhagen, leaking goals in alarming fashion and finishing the night with a miserable defeat and only a Wayne Rooney consolation goal for comfort. He blames some terrible defending for the final score and has warned the performance was simply not acceptable.

“It was a lesson in the second-half. We did ok in the first-half and defended well as a team but for some unknown reason it all went wrong after that. We stopped doing the right things from a defensive point of view and as a team it was a shambles.

“People were switching off all over the pitch but you can’t blame individuals. We were compact in the first half, they couldn’t get through us, and we looked dangerous on the counter attack. Maybe we could have gone in 1-0 up at half-time.

“But from front to back we stopped defending as a team and we all started playing individually. And when you do that at this level you get punished.”

He added: “This definitely brings us back down to earth with a bang. We need to get things sorted out and we need to go back to basics. Hopefully we’ll do that and take it out on the Welsh and Irish in the next two qualifiers.

“There’s no doubt that we have got qualities but we have had a bad night at the office. You can look for excuses all night but at the end of the day that second-half performance wasn’t acceptable. We’ve let ourselves down, the fans down and the manager down. We need to put it right.”