EVENING Press reporter SALLY FLETCHER gets an insight into what makes England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson tick behind that legendary Scandinavian cool exterior...

PASSIONATE encounters may have scored Sven-Goran Eriksson almost as many front-pages as back, but the Swede has always remained coolly tight-lipped.

But now speaking candidly about the worst moment in his career, footballing bad apples, and the beauty of Beckham, the England manager finally seems ready to open up.

"I am always criticised for not standing up and screaming from the bench every time we lose a football match," he said.

"Maybe I should be less cold, but you have to be yourself, and be honest with your players."

Honesty is one of Eriksson's watchwords - honesty and clarity - and he translates it on to the pitch. "Football is a very simple game. 'Pass the ball. Do it quickly'.

"You don't have to try to dribble round ten players, and when players understand that, that's when they really do it well."

"Keep rules simple too, things you can control, and players can follow.

"These are just normal young men, they just want to win football games."

It seems the manager is keeping a close eye on his 'normal young men'.

"If you have a problem, one bad guy in a squad, in three days you will have two bad guys," he said.

"It's like dropping a stone in the water, the waves it makes.

"Even if you are earning millions and are the most famous player in the world, you shouldn't behave like a diva, and I can say that my players do not."

One young man whose attitude has particularly impressed the boss is Everton striker Wayne Rooney.

"Playing Wayne was probably the biggest decision of my England career," he said.

"He's just 18 years old, but you take a chance, and he did fantastically. He stood the pace, stood the pressure.

"You never know if it will work until you try it. I don't like gambling very much, but I will in my job.

"You must take risks sometimes, if you don't, you don't win."

Pressure too, is all part of the game for Eriksson.

"Everyone already seems to think we have won the European Championship, and that's nice," he laughed.

"That makes the pressure on us very big, but it's much better to be in the team with the pressure enormous than the team with none at all, then at least you are in with a chance of winning."

And another important factor, as Eriksson well knows, in his team's chance of winning, is captain David Beckham.

"Making David captain is the best decision I have made since I have been England manager," he said.

"I thought he was a very good young man until I met him. Then I understood he is even better than that.

"He's the most famous football player in England and probably the world.

"But he really gives 200 per cent.

"He will sometimes do even more than I do, taking care of kit, talking to the chef, helping youngsters like Rooney when they come through.

"He takes such pride in it, and works more than anyone else, he is an amazing man for us."

But even Eriksson's star could not change his worst moment as England manager.

"It is my worst memory losing against Brazil.

"You just feel empty inside, there is nothing there," he remembers.

"And if I could change just one thing in my career?

"When it was two minutes to half-time against Brazil I should have run out and told my four defenders 'don't move, stay there,' and we wouldn't have been 1-1 at half-time.

"But I sleep, I don't think about that any more.

"We have beaten Germany, Argentina, and fought Brazil, and the players really feel that we are on that level, the same level as the best teams in Europe, the best in the world.

"If we more or less have all the players fit with no injuries we can do better than the World Cup.

"I am not going to tell you we are going to win, but I think we have a chance to do it.

"One thing I can tell you for sure: Brazil will not be in the European Championships."

Updated: 10:26 Saturday, October 25, 2003