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By Trevor Huggins MANCHESTER, England, Oct 4 - Sven-Goran Eriksson
is convinced his underperforming England will finish top of
Group Six and avoid the "disaster" of failing to qualify for the
World Cup finals. England looked to be comfortably on their way to Germany
until last month's shock 1-0 defeat in Northern Ireland left
them needing to beat Austria on Saturday and Poland next week to
qualify as group winners. Should they fail, Eriksson's men could still book a ticket
to the finals as one of the two best runners-up or via the
playoffs. "We're playing for a ticket to the World Cup," Eriksson told
a news conference on Tuesday. "We know we can play in the
playoffs as the situation is today, but we don't want to do
that. We want to try to win the group. "We have to play better football and win two games - and I'm
very positive that we can do that. For England, not reaching the
World Cup would be a disaster." Despite his optimism, Eriksson also made it clear England
need to move up a gear after starting their season with a 4-1
friendly defeat in Denmark and continuing with an unconvincing
1-0 qualifying win over Wales and the defeat in Belfast. The Swede said: "We have two huge games to play...and we
know we can play much, much better than we have so far this
season - and we have to." SAD ENGLAND Reluctant to once again analyse the defeat by Northern
Ireland, using a controversial 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation, Eriksson
said: "It was bad. It was sad. And that's it." Speaking at Old Trafford, which will be hosting their next
two qualifiers, Eriksson said he would "probably" revert to a
4-4-2 system and also gave his full backing to central defender
Rio Ferdinand. Criticised in the media and by some fans, the Manchester
United defender has been below par in some games this term and
is fighting to keep his place in a three-way race with John
Terry and Sol Campbell. "If you take this season, England as a team have not
performed at the level we should do with Rio, without Rio,"
Eriksson said. "I don't think you can say it's one player's
fault. "I think he played well for England when England last
performed well - and that was last season." Eriksson also needs to make a decision over how to replace
left-back Ashley Cole, who withdrew from the squad on Tuesday
with a stress fracture of the foot. Striker Michael Owen, who is recovering from a dead leg, is
expected to return to full training on Thursday when he will be
joined by captain David Beckham. The Real Madrid midfielder was given permission to join up
with the England squad on Wednesday as one of his three children
is undergoing hospital tests in Spain.
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