Speaking exclusively to TheFA.com for England TV, Sven revealed his particular pleasure in the emergence of England's young prospects:

"Shaun Wright-Phillips came on very well of course and scored a goal which makes the headlines - I’m happy for him," he explained.

"They didn’t speak very much about Defoe, but Defoe is a brilliant talent.

"He’s doing very well – he played well on Saturday up in Newcastle and did well when he came on against Ukraine.

"He is a natural goal-scorer. Close to and in the box he is very strong and quick and he knows where the goal is.

"Paul Robinson is also doing very well – congratulations to him. He played very well Saturday and worked very hard in the few sessions we had last week.

"He’s young and I hope he stays fit, and goes on playing like this.

"For the moment we have David James who is also playing very well, so probably I won’t change for the next game.

"But you never know in life. It’s up to the players to convince me and show me that they deserve to play."

Sven also spoke about his burgeoning relationship with Sir Trevor Brooking, The FA's Director of Technical Development:

"It’s very good to have football people around you. He has huge experience of English football as a player as a director as a manager.

"I’m very happy and our relationship is absolutely top class.

"We talk about the problems we have – problems with travelling and other things.

"We don’t talk very much about the tactics and things like that, because I have the coaching staff of course, but sometimes we talk football.

"We talk about what happened in the Premier League in the last week and things like that. He’s a very nice man."

Sven was speaking to TheFA.com's Dan Freedman. Click the links below to watch the full interview.

24 August 2004      
Sven-Göran Eriksson Exclusive