Some roulette players use systems and almost invariably, they lose. Glenn Hoddle has never come across as a compulsive gambler but in Rome on Saturday he will put his faith in a system which some, even now, believe to be flawed.

Since taking over the England team from Terry Venables after Euro '96 Hoddle has remained true to a way of playing which he believes will prove to be the salvation of English football. By playing three defenders with five in midfield, including wing-backs, Hoddle insists that he is dragging England's game into line with the European mainstream.

If England get the result they need against Italy, a win or a draw, and go straight into the World Cup finals in France next summer, Hoddle will be entitled to feel vindicated. But if they lose and face the further uncertainty of a play-off, the argument about his tactics is bound to continue.

In Hoddle's view the age of 4-4-2 should have been pensioned off years ago. It produced 6 ft-plus centre-backs who were not comfortable on the ball, defenders who could only mark zonally and teams who pressed up to the halfway line.

To support his case, Hoddle points to the goals scored by the better foreign imports against English defenders not practised in the art of getting tight on opposing forwards. Gianfranco Zola and Dennis Bergkamp, he says, found life much more difficult in Italy.

Then there is Eric Cantona, who with Peter Schmeichel was far more responsible for Manchester United's title sequence than any system. "I remember Cantona in France," says Hoddle. "He was man-marked and was nowhere near as effective."

Yet systems are judged by results and if, by some remote chance, England fail to qualify for the World Cup there will be plenty of people ready to castigate Hoddle for trying to match players to a system rather than the other way round.

`For more than 20 years we've played 4-4-2 and what have we won?' asked Graham Taylor rhetorically, when he was thinking of changing the shape of the England team before the 1992 European Championship in Sweden. As it turned out, injuries more or less decided Taylor's tactics for him.

The last time England played in a World Cup Bobby Robson suddenly switched to a sweeper system during Italia '90, with Mark Wright his libero. Against all expectations England reached the semi-finals before going out to West Germany on penalties. Then Robson gave way to Taylor and the team reverted to type.

"I don't understand what people mean by a flat back four," Taylor used to say. But a succession of Norwegians, Dutchmen, Germans, and a computer clerk from San Marino understood only too well.

The vogue-term wing-back is neither flesh nor fowl since most of those cast in the role for England have so far neither centred like a winger nor defended like a full-back.

Both the best exponents of the supposed wing-back's art in the Premier League are full-backs wearing Arsenal's colours, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn.

The better the players, the better whatever playing pattern the coach wishes to use will work. Franco Baresi used to switch seamlessly between defending zonally for Milan to sweeping for Italy in a man-marking system.

If England have become better-equipped technically since Hoddle took over they may well find the promised land via Rome. If not then no system on earth will save them should the Italians suddenly strike collective form.