Sven-Goran Eriksson is not prone to experimentation, but he looks set to start with a 4-3-3 formation against South Korea today having given a significant, if inadvertent, clue yesterday as to the personnel he will use in England's opening World Cup game against Sweden on June 2nd.
On the evidence of an unusually accessible England training session, Danny Mills rather than Wes Brown will start today's game at right back, Danny Murphy will make his first start for England at right midfield, Owen Hargreaves will play in the centre, while Darius Vassell appears to have established himself ahead of Robbie Fowler up front.
Murphy and Hargreaves can be taken as straight replacements should David Beckham or Nicky Butt respectively fail to recover in time for the World Cup opener.
This may seem an unduly large amount of conclusions to glean from the standard 15 minutes of warm-up exercises the press are usually afforded before England games. But yesterday's session was no ordinary watching brief.
In normal circumstances, the stadium at Seogwipo, where England meet the co-hosts today, is a tribute to clever architecture. Inadvertently, however, the structure also allowed journalists a view of the pitch from the external concourse, after they had vacated the stadium proper.
Eriksson will probably count this as a design flaw as, from behind the iron gates, it was possible to see England A line-up 4-3-3 against the remainder of the squad who can still run about.
Given that Eriksson's belief in 4-4-2 almost amounts to religious orthodoxy, this was a sight in itself.
Although England did play that way in Amsterdam against Holland, Eriksson has been notably reluctant to become involved in any exchange about formations since arrival here.
Yet, judging from the way the bibs were handed out, Eriksson will try 4-3-3 again (which can become 4-5-1 if necessary) against the South Koreans tonight.
David James was in goal in yesterday's training, and he and Nigel Martyn can expect one half each.
But Mills lining up adjacent to his Leeds team-mate Rio Ferdinand, with the Arsenal pair of Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole alongside, represents the first indicator so far that Mills is winning the battle with Brown.
Guardian Service
