Q There’s been a lot of negativity about the England team, what do you think it would take to get us out of the doldrums?
A "I don’t think we’re in the doldrums. I mean, we’ve just qualified with a game to spare. You wouldn’t have thought it was the doldrums if you were in our hotel on Saturday night - it was quite a pleasant place to be! Obviously this season these last three or four game we haven’t played to our maximum.
But we’re there and we’ve got plenty of time to fine-tune it now before the World Cup. It’s nice to be there."
Q You’re captain against Poland, how much extra responsibility does that place on your shoulders?
A "Not much really. It’s obviously not my job, it’s David Beckham’s job and when he’s not playing there’s probably a collective responsibility. You look round the team and we have plenty of leaders. I wear the armband but I wouldn’t expect any of the other leaders, just because they are not wearing it, to play or act any differently. So yes, it’s nice to wear the armband but it’s business as normal. My focus will be on how I play and how the team plays and I’m sure everyone else’s focus will be on the same thing too."
Q There’s a lot of talk about seedings, do you think England deserve to be seeded for the World Cup?
A "I’m not sure. I don’t know the ins and outs. It’s difficult to say. It sometimes can be quite important to be seeded in the World Cup but also saying that sometimes it’s not a bad thing not to be seeded and to have a real big game in the World Cup because that can change things round. If you’re not playing well at a specific time then you get one of those big boys you soon pick up your performance and get a lot of confidence if you can get something. Sometimes it takes a big game to snap out of a run."
Q People talk about this being England’s golden generation of players, does that mean there will be no excuses if we don’t win the World Cup this time?
A "We’re not planning any excuses, we don’t have any now. We’re obviously there and we have to focus our minds on how best to prepare for the World Cup. Like any World Cup or Euros if things didn’t go right there would inquiries into why we were out and everything else.
But you never know what is going to happen in a game of football. Take the last game as a prime example. We had somebody unfortunately sent off and if we’re playing against a top team then it’s very difficult to stay in the competition then.
That’s just a bit of bad luck that no-one can legislate for. You can never say the minimum is this or that, if something goes wrong and you lose a couple of key players to injury, or someone gets sent off in a very important game you just don’t know. That’s why people say when you win something you have obviously got to have the players and staff but you also need a bit of luck.
Hopefully we’ve used up a bit of our bad luck on Saturday and we can not have any more injuries or red cards or anything like that.
Q Now that you’re a veteran of the squad how would you compare and contrast the squad and also the feeling of optimism within the squad with previous tournaments?
A "Well, there’s obviously plenty of optimism and it’s great that we’ve qualified with a game to spare. We’re very pleased about that. Obviously in the last couple of games we haven’t performed as well as we would like.
But when you look around the squad, I’ve been in lots of squads where maybe it’s been some people’s last tournament or in the last World Cup it was a lot of people’s first tournament. But you probably look at the team and the squad now and you don’t look at anyone and think ‘he’s too experienced’ or ‘he’s past his best’. We have a squad that you look at and think everyone can perform in a World Cup and that’s an encouraging sign."
Q Sven believes ten of the top 50 players in the world are English but do you think Wayne Rooney is one player who can make a bit of a difference?
A " Well, certainly when you go to a World Cup you need a few players who you can actually look at and think ‘I hope he can win a game on his own’. And we’ve got Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard who you think if one of them put in just one fantastic performance it could mean us getting through quarter-finals into semi-finals.
Then you look around and you see Wayne and all the players and you think if he turns it on then maybe that bit of magic can open up another top team The more and more top players you’ve got the more and more different opportunities you’ve got of creating a bit of skill or magic or whatever it might be. You would obviously class Wayne in that category, no doubt about it."
Q Alan Shearer was very critical of England on Saturday on the telly, saying you don’t look the same players wearing an international shirt as you do playing for your clubs. Do you agree with him?
A "Well, I heard he was on Radio 5 today being very supportive of the team and the manager. Saturday’s game we weren’t brilliant by any means but I thought the first half was good. And I think it’s very unfair to judge anyone on the second half, we were with 10 men for the majority of it and 1-0 up and they were trying to throw everything at us. But they didn’t hardly have any chances. To have 10 men and hardly give them a chance I thought was decent when you look at the overall picture. I was quite pleased with the first half. It’s easy to get away from the game and I was the same.
You leave the game and think to yourself the second half wasn’t good but when you look at the facts of the matter it was difficult to play well when you’re down to 10 men. It was frustrating because I think the whole nation wanted us to perform well, and the players as well.
"As we were saying earlier about the World Cup, it’s so hard to predict about winning. Football is so hard to predict, anything can happen at any given moment and that’s how it was on Saturday."
Q The players are very supportive of Sven, what is it he does in your eyes that make him a good manager?
A "Well, it’s probably different from club management you don’t get to see the players too often and when you do it’s quite short preparations before games and it’s important to keep the atmosphere good more than anything in the team. Everyone knows he’s no stranger to the country now, he’s been in charge for a while now and everyone knows his strengths.
Overall this group, I know we haven’t played in well in the last few games, but when you look at the group on paper you think we should be where we are and that’s true. But also there’s some games that are much tougher than they look. You are on a bit of a hiding to nothing because there are teams you are expected to beat three or four nil but really it’s never going to happen.
"As we were saying before sometimes not being seeded can help. If we playing in a group far tougher then it certainly raises your game. You can’t tell me we’ll be taking this form of the last few games into a game where we were playing Brazil or Italy in the World Cup. You can’t tell us because we’re playing like this now they would beat us 3-0.
"We’ve got proper players who will raise their games for these games. Obviously when you are playing against opposition who aren’t as fashionable as some of those teams then expectations are higher and the whole game is more difficult to win in the way everyone expects you to go and win."
Q What’s the problem with England at the moment, is there a little bit of confidence lacking?
A "Maybe. Maybe there’s a little bit of confidence. We haven’t set the world alight over the last few games but again I go back to it if we were playing Brazil in the World Cup tomorrow then don’t expect us to be playing at the level we’re playing at at the minute.
"That’s not lack of effort or passion or anything else that people want to level at players, it’s just the fact that that’s what football is like nowadays. It’s harder than it was many years ago, I’ve even seen a big change in the short time of my career. If we play in a World Cup and we play against a proper strong nation then I don’t think we’ll see a lack of confidence in that game."
Q Is tomorrow, with a full house and already qualified, when we will see players perform?
A "Well, we’re going into it similar to the last game really, because we know what’s happened over the last few games we’re desperate for a performance. Even though results is normally 99 per cent, performance is one per cent you get a feeling that now we’ve qualified the performance is a bit more significant tomorrow and we’re all desperate to play well.
"Hopefully we can relax a bit more, it’s not so results orientated and we can put in a good performance. But again it’s one of them teams that’s not a Brazil or an Argentina, it’s obviously a different game. Teams that know they are not as good as England can sometimes come and pack defence and pack midfield and make it difficult. Whereas in the top games in the World Cup every team fancies their chances and it’s normally the best team that wins. But in games like this they can stifle some of our better players."
Q Is there a feeling against Austria that you could have had more intensity in your game and pushed for the ball further up the pitch?
A "Well, yes, you could say that. But there’s other arguments that they put five across midfield and had one sitter. It’s always nice to go and win the ball as high up field as you can. But when they have got three in midfield then Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard couldn’t afford to go and push up on their playmaker so often it was either me or Peter trying to put them off passing to that player, which many teams now use.
"It’s normally the striker’s job to drop in behind and pick up one midifelder, and then you can’t go and press. But it’s the lesser of two evils because than pushing forward and leaving three against two in midfield. That’s what the manager looks at and that’s what we work on. But it’s always nicer to go and press teams, if someone plays the same formation against us that we play against them then I’m sure you’d see it happen. But it’s different when they play 4-5-1. And we get criticised even more when we play only one striker.
"I can certainly back them up. You talk to foreign players and they don’t look forward to playing English teams because they seem a lot more aggressive and up and at them and strong and keep the pace and intensity of the game high. That’s something if you get the opportunity we have to try to do and make use of. But we’re talking about when you get to a World Cup at a high high level and you’ve got to know what you are doing as well as having all that fire in your heart, you also have to have something in your head telling you what’s going right as well."
Q You know better than anyone that even a good race horse needs a good crack of the whip sometimes. I wonder whether Rio being dropped whether if there was any complacency in the squad it knocked it out of the players seeing a top player dropped?
A "Well, as players we like to think that the manager wouldn’t need to drop someone to get a response. We’re playing for our country and if you ask anyone then they would all say they ‘try their best" and "passion" don’t come into it. It’s a massive honour playing for your country. That’s from a players’ point of view.
"But yeah, the manager had a big decision to make. If he was sticking to his back four then one had to go, although you say one but Jamie Carragher and Ledley King don’t seem to get a mention and we couldn’t go far wrong playing them, could we. So yeah, it was obviously going to be a big decision for him. He made that decision. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, really. If the manager has to make a decision that’s what he gets paid to do and you know that’s what he will do."
Q There will be 64000 people there tomorrow, if there is another flat performance what do you expect the reaction to be?
A "Well, I think there will be more negative press and everything else. But it won’t change the chance we have of winning the World Cup.
You know, we’ll get to the World Cup and we’ll be seriously focused, it will be against real, real top teams and you only have to look at the players in the squad, they are not going to lie down for anyone. Yes, we’re desperate more than ever for a performance because the country does need a boost. The fans deserve a good performance and the manager does and the players owe it to themselves as well.
But it’s all right wanting that but sometimes it’s difficult to produce. If we don’t there will be a negative press and feeling around the country but it won’t affect our chances in the World Cup in any way. No matter what our form is like going into that World Cup we’ll produce it in the big games, I’m sure of that."
Q Do you think you and Wayne Rooney are most dangerous if played through the middle together?
A "The only time that hasn’t been the case is when I’ve been suspended or Wayne’s been suspended and we’ve played with the 4--3-3 formation. That’s a matter for the manager. I think he’s already stressed that will be down to how he thought the shape of the team was in terms of fitness and stage of season. I think he’s already said his ideal formation is 4-4-2 or 4-4-2 using a diamond. If Wayne was in that system he would be down the middle."
Q We have five games until the World Cup, does every game become vitally important now?
A "They are important because we all know confidence is very important in a team and we would love to perform in all these games. But I’m sure the manager is only interested in getting to the World Cup and performing there.
Yes these games will certainly and hopefully we can gain a bit more confidence and generate a buzz around the country again because it’s a bit flat at the minute, that would be nice. But above all is getting everyone to the World Cup fit and healthy. Then I think you’ll see, regardless.
"If we win all these games 4-0 our odds will halve and everyone will think we’re going to win the World Cup. But if we draw and win and lose the odd one it will make expectations lower but personally I don’t think it will make as big a difference as some people think When you have a proper big ,big team in front of you at the World Cup I’m sure the Lampards and Gerrards and the Beckhams and Rios and Rooney and everyone else, Sol Campbell, John Terry, won’t be surrendering to anyone."
Q Why couldn’t we do that now?
A "I don’t think it’s possible to say, it’s virtually a different sport, it’s a different game we are playing at the moment We’ve qualified, we’ve made sure we’ve qualified with a game to spare - I don’t think we’ve done that in a long time. People will say the group was easy but sometimes it goes against you, sometimes you’re expected two win games two or three nil and teams put out 4-5-1 against you and defend and it’s very difficult. It will virtually be a different team a different game you are watching in the World Cup.
"When you are playing against good teams who fancy themselves against you and you fancy yourself against them. You’ve seen it before we’ve played against France, Portugal in opening games and Argentina in the second game of the World Cup and you always get good performances, good games. They are so much different to going away to a small country in Europe where it’s freezing cold or bad pitch and hostile crowd, it’s just a different sport when you get to a World Cup."
Q When you look back on your career is going out of the two World Cups the moments you look back on with regret?
A "Yes, I think so. You don’t get many opportunities in your life to play in the World Cup and you always think ‘what if’ in the games when you’re knocked out. There were a few bits of misfortune in the Argentina game but going out on penalties was a bitter pill to swallow. And Brazil was always ‘what if’ we could have done this or done that, just got into half-time 1-0 because it was quite comfortable and by no means were they dictating the game or anything like that.
"It’s what if. If we can get everyone fit for this World Cup and not suffer a sending off here or bad injury here like we had again in Euro 2004 with Wayne Rooney going off against Portugal, if we can just not suffer any major blows like these then who knows where we can go. But it’ s impossible to predict."
Q There’s talk that when Rooney is on the pitch he makes space for you, does it work out that way?
A "Yes, but I would probably say it’s the other way around - I try to give him as much space as possible. We all know what a good player he is and football is a sport where you take no prisoners, if they have a dodgy full-back then you give our winger the ball all the time. We have fantastic player in Rooney so a lot of our game is geared to getting the best out of him. If I’m playing then I try to make him look as good as possible by trying to pull defenders away from and stretch them as much as possible.
Because we all know Wayne is more dangerous in that hole, running at players, shooting from distance, passing the ball, bits of skill. He’s not similar to me in that I like getting behind defenders, he’s not that type of player. We complimented each other OK in Euro 2004. It worked pretty well. I had quite a slow start to the tournament but we were getting better and better as a pair as it went on. I try to make as much space for him as possible as opposed to the other way around."