Q Can you give us injury news?
A "I’m 99 per cent sure that all of them will practice today. So they should be fit for tomorrow. But I didn’t have time this morning to talk to the physiotherapist. But what we talked yesterday evening was that they should train today.
Q Will you experiment for this game?
A "No. We are going to play more or less as we did Saturday. And no experiment. But of course some new players will play because Beckham, Gerrard and Campbell is not there and Wayne Rooney is back, so that’s very good."
Q Do you think tomorrow is the start of the process to look for a performance and get the buzz back?
A "I hope that we will play even better than we did Saturday. I think Saturday was a good step forward if you go back to the other three games we played this season. Hopefully it will be even better tomorrow and a good result as well because it would be very good to win the group. We have a very good opponent, they have been doing extremely well in this tournament."
Q Would this not be a good opportunity to bring in someone like Chris Kirkland because there are no caps between the back-up goalkeepers?
A "I think we should try to play the best team, then we have another four friendly games. I think there’s time for what you said to happen but not tomorrow"
Q You said at the start of the season that you knew what your World Cup XI would be. Has that changed at all?
A "Well, if you ask me after the second half in Denmark maybe I should have changed 11! But no, no. You don’t play well every game unfortunately but the starting X1, yes, more or less I should know it."
Q Considering big countries like Spain and France are struggling to qualify, do you think you have had too much criticism?
A "You ask me that? I think you should ask yourself. I don’t know. It’s not a problem for me if you criticise me. I’m sorry sometimes if you criticise the players very harsh. I think we did excellent to be qualified one game ahead of where we thought.
"If you look at other teams, famous teams, extremely good football teams they are struggling and maybe some of them have to play play-offs. Greece, who won the European Championship, they are out. They can’t even play play-offs for example. I don’t know, if you want to criticise do it - we did the job anyhow. I look forward to the match tomorrow and I look even more forward to next summer to do a very good World Cup as I always said we would do."
Q Do you think this is a team that rises to a big occasion?
A "Yes, some of them are big tournament players I agree to that. But I can never defend that we have not been playing good football in the first three games of the season. I always said it. But that’s football I think. You struggle sometimes.
"We have qualified which was our big target and we will do a very good World Cup. I’m sure about that. Even if you are not sure, I am."
Q Do you think the fans are sure?
A "I think so. I think all those people coming to me after the last game were very happy. Congratulations, they say. We are in Germany. Very very happy."
Q Michael Owen said against ‘proper’ opposition at the World Cup big players step up. That indicates that that is why they haven’t been performing so well this season? Is that something that is true - they are all waiting for the World Cup to start?
A "They are all waiting for the World Cup to start, of course, and they were very, very happy to qualify. That atmosphere in the group, the dressing room, the hotel the dinner afterwards was excellent. You could really see from their faces that they expect it to qualify, of course they did, but when you do it you are happy. Of course they look forward to the World Cup but I’m sure that you will see a very good performance out there next summer."
Q Will we see a different England at the World Cup?
A "Than in the second half against Northern Ireland? I hope so. Very much so. And it will be different, of course it will. But when you are looking forward it’s important that in the middle of May we don’t have many injuries. Of course that’s important but that’s the same for every country. If you miss two, three, four key players you feel it."
Q Does the Poland game require a different type of team talk, telling them to enjoy it, get three or four if you can, give a team a beating. Instead of try and win it 1-0, put on another holding midfield player to protect what you’ve got. Do you want to see if England can really express themselves?
A "Well, what’s the difference with the team talk I had in the past?
Q Perhaps instead of just make sure you win try and entertain maybe?
A "But I always want to try to entertain. I always try to make them play good football. But if you just say put out the ball and good luck, I think I’m doing very bad work. Especially in a qualification game. You wanted entertainment Saturday playing with 10 men against 11? I don’t think you are sitting on the bench thinking about entertaining.
Q But this match is different?
A "I know it is different and it will be a more open game for sure because Poland will not defend like Austria. They will not defend with nine men behind the ball every time they lose the ball. Poland will not do that, they will play more openly and so it will be a more open game. And hopefully there is very good football."
Q You say you know your starting eleven but there’s a suspicion you’re not sure about midfield and whether you want a holding role, like Ledley?
A "I think we talked about that before. You should have at least two ways of playing 4-4-2 and that’s what we’re talking about, that’s what we’re thinking about. Some games you can play straight 4-4-2 and against other teams you need to play more like a diamond. It would be very good to have those two options."
Q Is Ledley a serious candidate to start those type of games?
A "He’s been playing there for one season.
Q 12 games
A "12 games only? I thought it was more. He came on Saturday very well. We have another young one who is starting to play this season in that role from Manchester United, Alan Smith. I think he’s doing better and better in that role and I know Ferguson wants to go on with it for the future. That’s another option."
Q Have you spoken with Fergie about that?
A "Yes, I have."
Q And you were in agreement that it’s a real possibility?
"Well, I don’t have any agreement with him. What he told me was that he wants to try to make Alan Smith a sitting midfielder, but that he told me for the first time last season. Then I spoke to him again about it this season. And that’s good for England as well."
Q You said on Friday you had identified what had gone wrong in the previous matches. How satisfied are you that you have fixed it?
A "Extremely satisfied. Because for one month it’s been a worry. I wanted us to play more like a team for the Saturday game than we did in the first three games this season. And I think we showed the spirit was fantastic. I know that we can play better football but the spirit was as it was last season and as it was in the past. I think we showed it first half, I think we showed it after Beckham was red-carded."
Q Michael said we can do better against better opposition. But you look at the results against Portugal, Spain, France, Brazil they aren’t good. So why should we believe it?
A "You forgot Germany and Argentina, and Turkey! OK, I was convinced that we would qualify and we are qualified. Once again I say if we don’t have too many injuries out in Germany we will do a very good World Cup. That’s my conviction. I am convinced about it. Then, if you believe me or not that’s another question.
"One of the reasons is that we have an extremely good football team which unfortunately we haven’t shown every time. But we have it. And this team, with not too many injuries, is a better team than it was in Portugal and a better team than it was in Japan.
"In Japan and Portugal we went out in the quarter-finals because of almost nothing. So that’s why I’m convinced."
Q David Beckham and Michael Owen aren’t captains of their clubs, have you thought about changing and giving it to someone like John Terry?
A "I haven’t been thinking of changing it, I have not. Because I can’t see any reason why I should do it I know that Terry is a captain, Gerrard is a captain, probably others as well, Ferdinand. But even if you don’t have the armband you can act as a captain if you are a central defender. If you need to talk to the midfielders, communication, absolutely. We should be very happy that we have a lot of captains in our team."
Q Do you not think that part of the problem in the last three games has been lack of leadership?
A "No. Absolutely not."
Q Do you feel secure in your position?
A "As secure as I always have since I signed for England. It hasn’t changed, even if you talk about Denmark away. Absolutely not. The answer is very easy."
Q Will your approach to the four friendlies be different. Will it be experimental? Or is the time for that finished?
A "If you talk about tomorrow, yes. If you talk about Argentina, yes. Then we have a game in March, yes. We take that seriously. If you talk about changing the last two games in May I have to do a lot of changing because there you have two games between the Premier League finish and the World Cup starts and it’s important that everybody gets at least some some minutes in the last two games. I think that is very important. If you talk of the match tomorrow and against Argentina it’s really serious games."
Q Do you wish you had more than four games?
A "Yes, but we are in the same boat as all the other countries, especially European countries. They don’t have any more either."
Q There was clearly a problem with team spirit in recent games did you ever question that you weren’t able to motivate the players as you had in the past? Did you question yourself?
A "Of course you question yourself. You try to find the reason to it. I think we found it. The players did very good. I had a long, long speech to them last week, longer than I would normally have. It got in. And they went out to do the job very, very well. So I’m very happy about that."
Q The way things have gone does it change your opinion about seeing out your contract to 2008?
A "No. Absolutely not. I told you before that the only way I would leave the job is on football results. Because I’m too stubborn to quit because of criticism, absolutely too stubborn for that."
Q What do you mean by that?
A "What do I mean by that? You asked me the question if criticism..
Q Or the pressure?
A "Pressure, no. The criticism no. The only way I finish this job is football results."
Q What results constitute good enough to stay in the job?
A "Well, we’ve qualified now, let’s see at the World Cup. I have a contract until 2008 and I am convinced that we are going to do good results."
Q You say you are ignoring speculation, do you think the players are ignoring the speculation?
A "I hope so, really.
Q You don’t think it affects them?
A "No. No, no, no. I don’t think so. They are too experienced, many of them. Maybe some of the young ones. I mean at breakfast I see them doing this with their heads [shakes his head] and laughing. Because normally they take a newspaper in the morning, I don’t."
Q Now that you’ve qualified do you look back on your England and think you’ve been a success?
A "My dream is the same as yours and all the fans and all the players - to win a big tournament, to win the World Cup as we are talking about now. Of course it is. We haven’t. We have gone out from two big tournaments on marginal, almost nothing. That’s my opinion. Now we are here again and in eight months we start the big party again."
Q When did you leave a game thinking the players had played anywhere near their full potential?
A "Well, I don’t know. When I left Old Trafford Saturday I was extremely happy, very happy. I know we can play better football, and we will. But we did it, we qualified for the World Cup and for me it’s not a small thing, it’s a big thing. That’s why every England manager is in the job, in the past, in the present."
Q But when did the team play near potential?
A "I think many times we played good football, many times. Poland away we played well, didn’t we?"
Q Don’t you think that tomorrow it would be fantastic if the performance showed everyone we are on the right track?
A "Yes, I agree to you. And we will try to do that."