The England player's have, to a man, defended the tactics of England Manager Sven Goran Eriksson, with Michael Owen the latest of many to speak out in defence of their National coach.

Even with massive pressure from the media and fans alike, Sven Goran Eriksson has defiantly refused to stand down as England coach following England's disastrous 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in the World Cup European Zone Group 6 qualifier's last Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference Owen, who recently signed a four year deal with Newcastle United said, "The manager, the players and the staff are all in it together", he continued, "If the manager gets stick it's due in no small part to the players. We were out there playing and we didn't perform well enough."

"We played well for the first half an hour but then seemed to get worse and worse"..."But we take collective responsibility for the performance and now we have to show collective togetherness, stick tight and put it right in the next two games."

The complacency shown by the England team is an indication that, possibly, the Swede's tactics, and man-management, may leave a lot to be desired.

Owen maybe, unwittingly summed this up, saying of the players attitude during the match, "After half an hour, to think we were so in control of the game it normally takes a goal against or a sending-off to rattle your cage and for us to play so badly after that."

"Nothing happened though, and we just started playing not so well, not so well, and so on"…"We should have been pressing for the equaliser, but they had as many chances as us in the last five minutes. It was a poor performance, and it wasn't good enough".

So what happened to the half-time team-talk from Sven? To go into the break, in a World Cup qualifying match, against one of the so-called 'minnows' of the group drawing 0-0, should ring alarm bells through any managers head.

The lack of vigour and commitment that the England player's showed as they stepped onto the pitch for the second-half made it seem that, rather than having an uplifting managerial team-talk, it looked like they had just been for a sauna and a massage, and were all ready for a nice lie down.

Then, for Sven to substitute one of the few England players to show ANY fight or guile, Shaun Wright-Phillips, with Joe Cole showed a total lack of ambition from the England coach. Although Cole tried his best to adapt to a midfield that was seemingly in total delirium, he failed to make any real presence felt due to him constantly drifting out of position, and in doing so, leaving gaping holes in the English midfield, for which the wily Northern Irish were quick to capitalize on.

Frank Lampard looked completely out of sorts throughout the match, and the fact it took until the 80th minute for him to get substituted, (with the equally inefficient Owen Hargreaves), makes one wonder if the England coach was watching the same match as the rest of us?

Steven Gerrard, normally an overwhelming presence in midfield, was also on the missing list. For two giants of the midfield to be so inconsequential has to mean one of two things, either the players are too sure of themselves, and are expecting to win just by walking onto the pitch…or the tactics are totally wrong!

Something has to be done, and done quickly for England to re-invigorate themselves, and to become so-called World Cup contenders. The suspension of Wayne Rooney for the next match against Austria will force Sven to make tactical changes to the team, but with England needing two wins to qualify automatically for the final's, it will take some wholesale changes to rectify the mistakes of Englands recent debacles.

Whether Sven makes the right choices or not, we will have to see, but he, more than any other should know, the fate of England's World Cup dreams are in his hands!

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