Andy Gray's column: England's defensive weakness is a worry

ENGLAND did a solid, if unspectacular job in Liechtenstein last night but to go top of Group 7 on Wednesday they will have to perform an awful lot better against Turkey.

The important thing is that England have gone to Vaduz and won. In terms of qualifying for Euro 2004 victory was all that mattered and the fact they did it with a clean sheet will be a bonus for Sven Goran Eriksson.

OK, it wasn't pretty to watch and England looked a bit rusty in defence early on. But no matter how unconvincing they were, the three points were all that mattered.

It was always going to be an awkward game for England with everyone predicting five or six goals. We quickly saw that it wasn't going to be a cakewalk.

But what was worrying was the number of chances an outfit like Liechtenstein were able to create. They had decent chances right at the start of the game and hit the post near the end. If they had nicked a goal it would have been an embarrassment for England and Eriksson was mightily relieved that his side held out.

This class of opposition shouldn't trouble England but they did. The coach must be hoping that this game has helped to improve his defence's understanding and precision.

He will be looking for Rio Ferdinand and co to be more commanding against Turkey. There were stages early in the game when the English defence was at sixes and sevens.

There was an alarming lack of communication between goalkeeper David James and Ferdinand in the first few minutes that could easily have led to a goal.

England should have been aiming to play the game in Liechtenstein's last third of the pitch, but too much of the build- up was confined to the centre of the park.

That allowed Liechtenstein to clutter the midfield and England found it hard to get any penetrative passing moves going.

England's passing game was too predictable and lacked any real tempo. The build-up was far too slow, yet when we saw Kieron Dyer and Michael Owen run at the opposition we saw how vulnerable Liechtenstein were to genuine pace.

All top international teams need to be patient, but on this occasion I thought England were too patient. You wouldn't have thought they were playing a side that had only won one international. The Turkish defence on Wednesday will be a far tougher nut to crack and England will have to go up a gear and ping the ball around far more quickly.

But they will be better for the victory over Liechtenstein. Confidence isn't that high after the faltering displays against Slovakia and Macedonia. But this victory, even if it came from a disjointed performance, will have given the players a boost. They will be really up for the Turkey game now.

There may be criticism of the display, but I'm sure Eriksson will be pleased to have avoided a potential banana skin.

The good thing to come out of the game was that Michael Owen got another international goal to boost his confidence. The Liverpool striker took a fair bit of stick earlier in the season, but you could see last night that his self-belief is coming back.

He leapt beautifully to head home Emile Heskey's cross and was denied a second goal after the break by an excellent save from the Liechtenstein keeper.

Owen is England's potential match-winner against the Turks and that goal and a good all-round display will make sure he runs out in the right frame of mind.

David Beckham was involved in the build-up for that crucial first goal and I felt he had another influential game. It was a real captain's display from him. He never stopped running and chasing and he was the one player along with Owen who you felt could change the course of the game.

His free-kick for the second goal was sheer perfection. You knew it was going in from the moment it left his boot.

Both Beckham and Owen showed just how important they are to England. With players of that quality in your side you always have hope - and they are the men Turkey will fear on Wednesday night.

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