More injuries add to England's misery

Struggling England have been hit with more injuries as they prepare to try and save their 2002 World Cup campaign with a win in Finland on Wednesday night.

Captain Tony Adams has been ruled out of the game with a recurring back injury while left back Graeme Le Saux has a calf strain and is also out of contention.

Caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson has already seen David Beckham and Steven Gerrard withdraw from his midfield and with the loss of Adams both England captain and voce captain have been ruled out the game England really have to win in Helsinki to keep in contention for a place in Japan and South Korea.

The loss of Le Saux means Gareth Barry will step into the team at left back but without Adams the centre of defence could be seriously depleted as Wilkinson tires to abandon the ill-fated tactical changes that saw England outclassed by Germany at Wembley on saturday.

England conceded the whole first half to the visitors by adopting a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond pattern in midfield which Wilkinson will scrap.

Coach Kevin Keegan quit within an hour of the defeat and players have told the media that England did not practice the planned formation introduced by Keegan with centre back Gareth Southgate in front of a four man defence in a position he had never played before.

Southgate could now revert to a more traditional centre back role alongside Martin Keown and Wilkinson will attempt to boost numbers in midfield by playing 4-3-3 the tactic he has been using with the England under-21 team..

An injury doubt to Paul Scholes further exacerbates the confusion surrounding Wilkinson's plans and he has only two training sessions to drill the team. The loss of Adams is a real blow as he communicates ideas to the younger members of the squad and there is a need for a new captain now.

Paul Ince was angry about Keegan's tactical changes before the Germany debacle and was dumped from the squad but he may return to th side for the trip to Finland and has captained the side before.

Wilkinson has called up 34 year old manchester United veteran Teddy Sheringham who has been in good form recently.

Sheringham is an almost certain starter and will be used to link play between the forwards and midfield. Michael Owen and Andy Cole saw their service disappear on Saturday and Owen was very poor but the introduction of Sheringham could prove a neat short term fix for the coach.

The loss of Beckham means that a new route to goal has to be found if his crosses are not to figure in the team plan. Beckham played centrally in midfield on Saturday and made a reasonable job of a hopeless situation for his team so Sheringham's linking play could replace the crosses to Cole and Owen which Germany cut out all the time on Saturday because the full backs did not get forward.

Veteran David Seaman could also be replaced by Nigel Martyn in goal.

Finland lost 1-0 in Greece on Saturday and are not in the good form they showed at times last year but they are well organised and physical at home and unless England boost the creative presence in midfield they will struggle to match the subtle passing and awareness of Jari Litmanen.

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger is the favourite among the king makers at the FA but he is unlikely to leave Arsenal much before 2002.

The London club would allow the FA to approach Wenger but he is almost certain to stick with his Arsenal contract while he creates a second formidable team. But in 2002 the situation may have changed and the English FA could start now to look at long term solutions to the England team's problems.

In the very long term the FA are introducing new rules for coaches making some form of test compulsory for future coaches. Germany has 58,000 UEFA qualified coaches working at all levels of the game while England has only 1,800 and the gap in technical expertise after 30 years of wrong headed coaching beliefs from Charles Hughes, the former FA director of coaching, is starting to seriously damage the national team. The problem was highlighted by the men chosen by Keegan to help him with the England team. None had significant coaching experience at international level.

Current caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson could keep the job until the conclusion of the World Cup campaign if England win in Finland on Wednesday with a foreign coach such as Wenger being lined up to step in afterwards. Both Wenger and another FA candidate Alex Ferguson have contracts at their clubs which end in summer 2002.

Terry Venables has ardent supporters in the English media but won only two matches out of five at Euro 96 and the FA did not renew his contract in 1996 when he tried to get a pay rise before the Euro finals had even started. There is no doubting his coaching ability but it is wishful thinking to believe that the FA chiefs have mellowed towards Venables and his dubious business interests away from the game will count against him again.

SS Lazio coach Sven Goran Eriksson has one season left in Rome before president Sergio Cragnotti looks for an alternative unless he can win the Champions League but it is expected that he will move on.

The Swede is an excellent coach but has little experience of the international game. His fluent English and intelligence make him a candidate with former Glasgow Celtic coach Wim Jansen considered last year for the job when Glenn Hoddle was fired.

Eriksson earns £4 million a year at Lazio though and the FA are not in that pay league although they may make £3 million a year available to the right candidate.

Keegan is set to land a £1 million pay off from the FA after he quit the job and there will be the inevitable press interviews and book which will boost his earnings from the job he held for 19 months.

Caretaker Wilkinson should emerge as the favourite later in the week to take the job full time at least until the summer. He is adept at working with the FA as he showed last year when Peter Taylor was surprisingly ousted from his job with the under-21 for the former Leeds United manager to take his place.

Taylor lost only one game in 15 matches and has said today he is not interested in the senior job.

Wilkinson needs a win in Finland to push his credentials and injuries are not helping his cause but he has a strong power base in the FA and would take the job if he was offered it full time.

He could be offered the post later this week but he has to get a win in Finland to ease his progression into the top spot.