Wayne has the front for Sven

A solution presented itself during Tuesday night's encounter with Sweden. A solution that offers protection to England's faltering back four, allows the attacking midfielders to push on with confidence and placates a petulant Wayne Rooney.

Thanks to that right foot, Rooney has clearly become rather used to being the centre of attention. Now he should be given the opportunity to become England's centre forward.

It was actually after Rooney threw his tantrum in Cologne that Eriksson stumbled across the line-up that might just give his side a chance of progressing beyond Sunday's second-round match with Ecuador.

In a similar piece of good fortune in 1990, Bobby Robson's England reached the last four after being forced into playing a sweeper system and then deploying the midfield scoring potential of David Platt and the creativity of Paul Gascoigne.

In the Stadion Koln, Eriksson sent on Steven Gerrard as a replacement for Rooney, who looked more than a little foolish in the way he reacted to being substituted, and left Peter Crouch alone up front to finish a difficult game with a five-man midfield.

The reshuffle did not work perfectly, even if Gerrard scored England's second goal. But it would be foolish to dismiss such a game-plan when Rooney would be so much more effective in the lone front role than Crouch.

As Eriksson discovered during a rather more impressive first half, England's midfield is much better when someone like Hargreaves sits deep. They pass with precision, play with fluency and supply the forwards with alternatives to the long-range, feet-seeking missiles favoured in the first two games.

Position Hargreaves in the midfield holding role he has now proved he can perform and offer Gerrard and Frank Lampard the chance to demonstrate just how good they really are as attacking midfielders.

With Joe Cole in the form of his life, only David Beckham needs to move up through the gears to provide support for Rooney while creating chances for the rest. Beckham was desperate against the Swedes and will need to improve significantly otherwise Eriksson could start finding it difficult to justify keeping Aaron Lennon on the bench.

Eriksson was hugely impressed with a player who delivered the perfect riposte to the supporters who have booed and jeered him recently.

'I think Hargreaves has shown he is a great player,' he said. 'He was brilliant out there. I don't know how many balls he won but it was very many and he was full of energy until the last minute. I have always known he is a very good player.'

Hargreaves was certainly pleased. 'I tried to do a job for the team,' he said. 'I've played a lot of positions but the best one I can have is that one as the holder in midfield, winning tackles and laying it off. That's what I do best and it was a great opportunity to play in there.'

'I think we are very well covered even without Michael Owen. I am sure about that'

Relying so much on Rooney will not worry Eriksson. England were doing just that before Owen crawled off the pitch and will continue to do so for as long as he remains so influential.

But the goals that are coming from other parts of the pitch should give Eriksson the confidence to leave Crouch on the bench as cover for Rooney.

Eriksson said: 'I'm not that concerned about the situation because Rooney is getting better and better and that's a big thing for us. And we have midfielders, right midfielders, central midfielders and left midfielders who can easily play as a second striker and score goals. Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard scored two fantastic goals against Sweden.

'I can understand if people mention Jermain Defoe to me again, but if you talk about strikers, and players who can play as a striker, I think we are very well covered even without Michael Owen. I am sure about that. We don't want any more injuries with the strikers but once again, who scored the goals against Sweden? Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole.

'And as for formations, I feel that we can do both, 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. If we play 4-5-1 we have to keep the ball better than we did against Sweden in the second half.'

As Eriksson spent yesterday studying the scouting reports on Ecuador there were other things for him to consider. Not least, the problems with his defence.

Paul Robinson is a concern after three distinctly below-par performances. Had David James committed so many errors in the opening three games of a major tournament, much would have been made of his supposedly error-prone past.

At the same time, Eriksson and his staff need to address the difficulties the back four experienced during that tense second half. Not just from set-pieces but from Sweden's aerial bombardment.

'I was surprised at that because we worked on it many, many times before this World Cup,' said Eriksson. 'Now we have to work even more on it because we are a big, tall team and we shouldn't suffer that much from set-pieces. We have to do it better and we will on Sunday.'

Of some encouragement yesterday were the results of scans on Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville. Both remain a slight concern for Sunday in Stuttgart but Eriksson hopes to have them available. He could certainly do with Ferdinand.

Sol Campbell continues to struggle at the end of what has been a hugely problematic season for him and Eriksson should consider moving Jamie Carragher to centre half if Ferdinand fails to recover from his groin problem in time.

He is unlikely to consider it, but Eriksson could even switch Beckham to right back and unleash Lennon on England's next opponents.