Eriksson builds the spirit but a nation awaits the strategy

England: the bitter end

Little Juninho had it about right. "Same old England," he said, unconsciously adapting one of the lines from the terraces. "Always the long ball." As an assessment of England's style, from a man who has experienced the helter-skelter of the Premiership and emerged with reputation enhanced, that was as damning as you can get. Same old England.

Admittedly, after the shambolic second half against Sweden, Sven Goran Eriksson had to cut his cloth to fit. It was just a shame that what he fashioned was a pair of dungarees. England's football was as colourless as the undertaker's tie Eriksson donned for every match.

Nothing summarised the poverty of England's ambition more completely than the closing moments of their exit. "It was difficult to tell who had the 10 men," said the wonderfully indiscreet Kieron Dyer later. "Them or us." It was meant as a compliment to the passing and movement of the Brazilians, but it was equally a reflection of England's inability to fashion the merest ghost of a chance from the second half. When Danny Mills is the most potent threat on the opposition goal and Michael Owen is taken off, you know that England have reached the end game. Yet Tord Grip, Eriksson's assistant, was still talking after the match about "shape" and "patience", the twin shibboleths of England's training manual. How long do they think a game lasts?

What England needed in those closing stages was a sense of urgency, not patience. We had played patience with utmost effect against Argentina and Denmark, but in Shizuoka, with the tournament slipping away, England needed to raise the tempo and take a gamble. They resolutely did neither. In the dying seconds, Paul Scholes had a fleeting chance to drive straight at the heart of the Brazilian defence, just as Ronaldinho had done so elegantly for the equaliser just before half-time. Instead, he took a few strides forward, then stopped, turned and laid a five-yard pass back to Sol Campbell. While the Irish retreated with flag unfurled, England returned home to a muffled yawn.

The Germans, of all people, have been shocked by the way England have played this tournament. Their own team, they say, have to rely on the counter-attack because only Kahn, Klose and Schneider – Ballack, maybe, on a good day – might be termed world-class. But England have Beckham, Owen, Ferdinand and Scholes, the nucleus of a young and talented side. So why the fear? In defeat, England looked like a side who had spent too long defending. When they had the ball, no one had a clue what to do with it. But England's progress has to be set in its context.

When Eriksson arrived in England, Japan and Korea might as well have been the Sea of Tranquillity for all the chance England had of playing football there. To take England from the bottom of a qualifying group via a 5-1 victory over Germany in Munich to the last eight in the world is a considerable achievement. The Swede has bathed England in his own sea of tranquillity, taught the team to behave and think like grown-ups both on and off the field and instilled a precious streak of ringcraft into their matchplay. But an analysis of the "fox behind the ear" soliloquy, in which Eriksson outlined his principles of coaching for almost the first time, produced some worrying conclusions for those who believe that England should adopt a more ambitious strategy than retreating behind the ball and allowing the opposition to run out of ideas.

England might boast the meanest defence in this tournament – just three goals conceded in five games – but the meanest defence in the tournament will still be sunning themselves on the beach when the final is being played in Yokohama next Sunday. It is not much more comforting to look at the other end. Of England's six goals, two came from set pieces – Campbell's header and Beckham's penalty – one was an own goal, whatever Fifa decreed about Rio Ferdinand's header, two came from blatant defensive errors, by Niclas Jensen and Lucio, and just one, Owen's against Denmark, was created by England's own speed of thought and movement. When England actually had to create something out of nothing against Brazil's 10 men, you could hear the whirring of the creative cogs from five miles away.

If Eriksson is to be believed – and he speaks like a man still on a mission – the true day of judgement for this generation and its coach will come in four years' time on the more familiar soil of Germany. Though England have, on the whole, been lucky with their venues and their kick-off times, the humidity has worked against teams who like to press the opposition high up the field. Yet retreating to the halfway line and giving up the ball, as Teddy Sheringham has pointed out, is an equally tough way to play in the heat. England have yet to find the right balance between attack and counter-attack, and it is a skill they will need to master before the European Championship begins in 2004.

Where England have benefited over the past five weeks is in getting to know their coach and creating a team spirit which will endure. "People often say: 'Yes, this is the best atmosphere that we've ever had', and that can sound glib," says Gareth Southgate. "But I genuinely feel that there was a great spirit right throughout this squad, from the 20-year-old Joe Cole to the 38-year-old David Seaman. Everyone mixed in together, there were no cliques.

"Maybe the fact we were so far from home has brought everyone together more as well. But we're relaxed, the manager has made it that way. I also think we undervalue ourselves sometimes and underestimate how good our players are, how good our league is. I'm thinking of our two full-backs. Lots of players have come in to the tournament without big reputations, but Danny Mills and Ashley Cole have been outstanding. Nicky Butt has come into the team and really established himself. They will take great confidence from having produced what they do every week on this stage."

Grip also saw England's defeat by Brazil as a beginning rather than an end. "Maybe it's the end of the beginning," he laughed. "It's been a great experience, particularly for the young players. When they go back to their clubs, I want them to remember the experience of playing against Brazil, one of the best teams in the world, against Rivaldo and Ronaldo, and I hope they want to play in these sorts of matches and tournaments again."

The return of Steven Gerrard cannot come too soon for Eriksson. His driving energy was sorely missed. Joe Cole must also be fitted in to the jigsaw at the earliest available moment because, to use the modern parlance, he is a natural game-breaker. Germany 2006 should be the stage for him and for England. The real source of disappointment as the most fashionable haircut in the Far East heads home today stemmed from England's passivity in the face of a Brazilian side who, wearing the blue shirts and white shorts of Birmingham City, only fleetingly revealed their true colours. England have played like Italy in disguise. They need to discover their own identity.