David Beckham has warned Michael Owen that he cannot expect to walk straight back into England’s side for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier away to Northern Ireland.
Owen is suspended from Saturday’s match against Wales, and Beckham insisted that if the team play well without him, Sven-Goran Eriksson should stick to that line-up.
”It’s tough, but that’s what we are all striving for,” the England captain said. ”We all use the pressure of players doing well in our positions to lift our games. That’s what makes players play better.”
Beckham could find himself in an awkward position if, as expected, he slots into a central role in a 4-5-1 system on Saturday, with Shaun Wright-Phillips taking his usual position on the right.
”If Shaun has a great game, sets five goals up, and we win 5-0, that’s an amazing thing for the team and for every one of us,” he said.
”I want Shaun to do well whatever position he is in. I want him to set up goals, and score as many as he can. I want to win the game. It’s not all about whether I go back into any position I am not in against Wales, it’s about the team winning. That’s the most important thing.”
Eriksson, for all the calmness of his persona, has shown a tougher side to his character recently, axing David James and Glen Johnson after poor games in the friendly against Denmark last month, and Beckham maintains that even he does not feel absolutely secure in his position.
”The manager is strong enough to say that if you are not playing well, you are not in the team,” he said.
”I definitely think he would drop players. There might be doubts in other people’s minds, but he would. Any player who has not played well would expect to have the decision the manager made. People have to realise he has got that ruthless streak.”
Beckham also repudiated any suggestion that Eriksson is in thrall to player power, although he did acknowledge there had been a meeting on Tuesday at which the formation of the midfield was discussed.
”At all the teams I have been in, even Manchester United, the manager discussed his ideas, different formations with the players and captain,” he explained.
”This manager is no different. Almost every time we meet up, he discusses what different ideas he has, he discusses with coaching staff before talking to players. It’s good to have that connection with the players. What anyone says, the final decision is down to the manager.”
He also admitted to a certain embarrassment at suggestions that he is the real power behind the throne.
”I am not a manager,” he said. ”It’s just ridiculous to say that I am.”
He essentially echoed Eriksson’s line, which is that a certain amount of consultation is essential.
”If you are a leader in a company or a football team, club or country, you have to say how you want things to be done,” he explained.
”When you do that, you have to be sure that they understand it. Once they understand it, you have to be sure that they accept it. By accepting it, it means they also think it’s the right thing to do. If you don’t have all three components — to explain, for it to be understood and for the players to think it’s the right thing to do — you will never have good results.”
And that, essentially, is the bottom line. So long as England win in Cardiff, nobody will much care who picked the team. — Sapa-AFP