Japan using England friendlies as World Cup warm-ups, says coach Zico

Japan's head coach Zico answers questions during a press conference prior to his team's friendly match against Iceland, in Manchester.

Japan coach Zico said the triangular friendly tournament in England over the next few days will serve as a useful warm-up for the more serious business of their Asian 2006 World Cup qualifier against India next month.

Japan will meet Iceland on Sunday and then England on Tuesday, both at the City of Manchester Stadium, before playing the world's second most populous nation in Japan on June 9.

The Brazilian coach will experiment with his line-up during the two games before settling on his best formation.

Zico, who replaced Frenchman Philippe Troussier after the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan, has already named his provisional starting line-up for Sunday's match with Iceland, which is notable mainly for the decision to play Brazilian-born Alex Santos on the left flank.

Normally a right-sided player, the Latin American will now play on the left. "Alex will play provided he feels OK on Sunday and the only other doubt is Shunsuke Nakamura but he should be OK too," said Zico.

"I have told him (Alex) what I expect of him and I believe he is capable of doing a job there for us. Akira Kaji deserves his chance on the right."

Zico admitted he did not know much about the Scandinavians.

"From what I have seen of Iceland they look as though they play a very good and fast game. I saw the video of their game with Germany and they were not particularly physical.

"They come out quickly, they are fast and hit very hard on the counter-attack and we will have to be prepared for them," said Zico, speaking after a training session at the City of Manchester Stadium.

However Zico admits it is the India game that is uppermost in his mind with the World Cup qualification campaign taking priority over a tournament which will help England prepare for Euro 2004.

"We are quite tranquil at the moment and we have to be careful with our European-based players who can easily get injured," said Zico. "We are all bearing in our minds the World Cup qualifier with India so for these two games we are quite relaxed.

"We will be trying to use all or most of our players over these two games but the main object is to get ready for our World Cup qualifier which is very important for us."

In July, Japan, who were eliminated at the last 16 stage by Turkey in the 2002 World Cup, will begin their defence of their title as Asian champions but Zico admitted he has not even considering that objective yet.

"At the moment I have not even thought about the Asian Cup because we have an important World Cup game first.

"We have two friendlies, then our World Cup match and then two more friendlies after that. At the moment I want to keep things as simple as possible for the players because many only know Japanese football and they need to treat this as a learning process."

Zico will look to experienced pair Shinji Ono and Junichi Inamoto to do most of the leg work in midfield, Nakamura in a playmaker's role and Alex and Kaji on the flanks in a five-man midfield.