Eriksson wants England to be better organised
( 2002-05-23 15:52 ) (7 )

Team organisation is the key to World Cup success, says England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. But his side have still not learned that lesson.

Eriksson's injury-hit team are preparing for a friendly against Cameroon on Sunday after a 1-1 draw with South Korea raised questions over their ability to change tactics mid-match.

Playing in an unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation, the re-shuffled team used in Tuesday's second half struggled to find any fluency moving forward, with players floating in and out of position.

"When we lost the ball, we weren't organised and that makes it difficult to play good football and keep control of the game," Eriksson told reporters.

"There were many good individual performances but if we want to win the World Cup we have to be organised as well.

"And we were not in the second half...we had players all over (the place) ... you didn't know where the midfielders were, where the attackers were."

Part of the reason for the uncertainty could have been a lack of captaincy on the pitch. Regular skipper David Beckham missed the match because of injury while stand-in Michael Owen was substituted at halftime.

England are expected to revert to their usual 4-4-2 formation when Eriksson's side open their World Cup campaign against Sweden in group F on June 2.

One of those to lose their way, and subsequently his place in the squad, was West Ham United midfielder Trevor Sinclair.

Eriksson insists Sinclair's performance on a bad night for the team was not to blame for his exclusion.

"We lost the shape, we lost organisation," said the Swede.

"If I went by the second half against South Korea, I would have sent many on standby." Sinclair is on stand-by but flew home to England after the game.