Square pegs in round holes

Given that virtually every Premiership performance since England's midweek debacle against Holland has served to highlight the shambolic nature of the friendly, Sven-Goran Eriksson must have been delighted when Crystal Palace striker Andrew Johnson failed to do the same against Arsenal on Monday night.

The England manager must have feared that a star performance from yet another one of the players he marginalized against the Dutch would deliver a damning verdict on his tactics and selection. As it was, the Swede only had to witness two great saves from Johnson strikes and a converted penalty as Palace lost 5-1 - it could have been worse.

Following the international clash at Villa Park, Eriksson was universally condemned for once again demeaning the importance of England's non-competitive matches and further ridiculed for playing debutants, such as Johnson, and other potential stars out of position.

The 24-year-old striker's 16 goals for the Eagles this season deservedly earned the Premiership's top English marksman his first senior call up. The match against Holland provided the perfect opportunity to establish if Johnson could cut it at the top level, especially given Eriksson's apparent disdain for these clashes, but instead he was confined to the bench and then stuck out on the right flank for the final 29 minutes of the match.

Johnson came to the attention of the England manager ploughing a lone furrow - or as part of a strike duo - for Crystal Palace so to stick him out wide not only renders the very weapon that earned him his selection useless, but also proves detrimental to the development of the fledgling international.

The reason for his peripheral contribution, and that of his peers, seems to be Eriksson's fixation with his usual suspects. The Swede's decision to stick with skipper David Beckham and striker Michael Owen led to England adopting a pointless, but accommodating, 4-3-3 formation that will never be employed for a competitive match.

Eriksson's insistence on handing Real Madrid substitute Michael Owen a full 90 minutes meant that Wayne Rooney was stuck out on the left of a three man attack, while Shaun Wright-Phillips made his full debut on the right of the trio - rather than as the rampaging right winger that earned his spurs.

The City midfielder has been winning rave reviews this season and when Eriksson announced in his pre-match conference that he would start on the right, rather than on the problematic left, it was assumed that the coach had finally seen the light.

Little did we realize that Eriksson intended to play the whippet on the right of a three-man attack - resulting in a nervous display in an unfamiliar position. Yet back with his club, and in his usual role, he was back to his best.

In Sunday's Manchester derby, Wright-Phillips carved out a golden opportunity for Steve McManaman, only for the former England man to spurn it, and then drew a save from United keeper Roy Carroll, from which Robbie Fowler failed to slot home the rebound.

On the opposite side Rooney was simultaneously issuing Eriksson with a reminder of his most prolific position. Although the 19-year-old was one of England's most effective players in his left-hand role, which he also sporadically occupies for his club, Rooney opened the scoring as an orthodox striker on derby day.

He was also responsible for the cross that defender Richard Dunne turned into his own net to make it 2-0, and cheekily tried to claim it.

Back on England duty, Rooney was replaced by Johnson in the 61st minute and the Palace striker spent the majority of his debut providing crosses that he would have loved to have been on the end of.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid reacted to Eriksson's overly kind favour of giving Owen a full 90 minutes run-out by dumping the 25-year-old back on the bench for the weekend's clash with Osasuna. The England striker returning to his role of super-sub by scoring from the bench in the 2-1 win at the El Sadar.

The 4-3-3 adopted by Eriksson to accommodate Owen's training session also spared him the dilemma of possibly replacing Beckham on the right-flank with crowd favourite Wright-Phillips. Unfortunately that also meant that the he could not give Stewart Downing a full run out on the left-wing.

The Boro youngster has been saddled with the hopes of the nation that he will provide the long-awaited solution to England's problematic flank. Unfortunately, Eriksson allowed the chance of a comprehensive test of the 20-year-old's abilities pass by, as he too started on the bench.

Downing has impressed with his pace and ability to produce quality crosses on the run, but when he eventually emerged for the final 29 minutes he was employed in an unfamiliar position, withdrawn from the flank, that, not unlike Johnson, negated his most potent threat.

With a World Cup qualifying double header against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan in the offing what exactly did Eriksson learn from this friendly that he didn't already know?

Tottenham Hotspur's Dutch manager Martin Jol was equally bamboozled and delighted at Eriksson's decisions. Speaking on the BBC he shared his delight that the England manager had opted to play Johnson on the right were he offered no threat to his countrymen and was also overjoyed that Spurs' prolific striker Jermain Defoe had been left on the bench.

In a bizarre twist of fate Eriksson was present for Tottenham's FA Cup clash with West Bromwich Albion three days later when Jol employed a similar 4-3-3 system to accommodate his trio of strikers - Defoe, Robbie Keane and Freddie Kanoute.

Eriksson may also have noticed that Spurs' performance was shambolic until Jol reverted to a 4-4-2 formation. His team then battled back from a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1, with Defoe scoring twice.

Eriksson may have given spurs striker Defoe a run out if FIFA hadn't introduced a six sub limit - a quota that was brought in after the Swede made eleven changes in England's embarrassing clash with Australia. At least world football's governing body is attempting to prevent Eriksson making a total mockery of the international game.

Yet despite this Eriksson still opts to make needless changes and learns nothing from what should be the perfect opportunity to test new or young players.

He had Downing, a possible solution for the left flank, Wright-Phillips, one of the Premiership's most exciting players, and Johnson, a goalscoring talent, all primed for action and itching to impress yet he managed to marginalize them all and condemn the clash to the ever increasing list of meaningless matches under his tenure.

Eriksson has a history of incompetence when it comes to friendly matches and the least he should have achieved, after opting to deny the 35,000 paying fans a chance to see England's fresh talent, is to banish the memory of England's abject surrender to Spain in their last outing.

He did neither, yet again, and it's time this reputed £4.5million-per-year joke came to an end. Unfortunately the FA's generous wages have priced any takers out of the market and, in any case, the Swede's stock has dropped around Europe.

Eriksson's competitive record is often pointed out in defence of his performance as England manager, but who have Eriksson's England beaten of any note?

Two teams; Germany and Argentina.

The 5-1 World Cup qualifying win in Munich was admittedly momentous but England were outplayed for the near the entirety of their 1-0 World Cup win over Argentina and only triumphed thanks to a dubious penalty.

Routine wins over international giants such as Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein, Macedonia and Slovakia do not make a good manager.

If Rudi Voeller can guide what was hailed the worst ever German team to the 2002 World Cup final (the same team England beat 5-1) and Greece coach Otto Rehhagel can lead his 100/1 outsiders to Euro 2004 glory then why does England's most talented bunch of players for a generation keep failing to meet the challenge of a major championship?

If you have any thoughts you can email Dominic Raynor.

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