Eriksson opts for practical approach

World Cup Qualifier: England manager prefers to forget euphoria following Munich win and concentrates on instilling basics into young side

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Eriksson exercises the power of motivation

Albania's FA 'don't care about us' says captain

Bring on the Albanians (up to a point)

England on tour attract new breed of spectator

Albanians in search of a shining light

The big conviction before the defection of Kevin Keegan and the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson, who was yesterday obliged to mildly dispute the belief that he had already achieved "God-like status", was that the next coach of England would be hand-groomed by the FA's technical director Howard Wilkinson.

It sounded plausible enough and after all the French had done it to such good effect that they had beaten the world. You just couldn't pull a man, however experienced, out of club football and expect him to do a job that on so many occasions of gut-wrenching national disappointment had been described as "impossible". Really? Eriksson, stepping lightly again from one point of logic to another on the eve of tonight's penultimate World Cup qualifying challenge against Albania in Newcastle, coolly offered the perspective of a man who in eight months has utterly transformed the horizons of English football. "I think in every job you do experience is important. I have been fortunate to have had quite a bit of it in international club football. An advantage? Yes, I think so."

One liberal translation: you can't be taught a job that left Graham Taylor raging before the cameras of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Glenn Hoddle mouthing philosophical mumbo-jumbo and Kevin Keegan in tears. You have to bring to it a hard-won and deeply entrenched set of values. You have to have an understanding of its scope – and its limits. Most importantly, you cultivate habits of the mind – and the spirit.

A classic example of the Eriksson style came yesterday when he was asked about the exuberance of his young and brilliant midfielder Steven Gerrard when Germany were 5-1 down in Munich last Saturday night and not so much beaten as eviscerated. Did he enjoy Gerrard's showy humiliation of his Anfield team-mate Dieter Hamann in the last minutes of the game? "Well," said Eriksson, "I'm happy about the way he played, and I think the two players are friends." But he had something else to say. It was about respect; respect for your team-mates, your coaches, the kit-man but, most of all, your opponents. "The day you lose respect, especially for your opponents, you start to go down. But I think Hamann will forgive him."

The point was made with a feathery lightness. But it landed like a hammer. Another glimpse into the approach of Eriksson came when he was told that Gerrard and captain David Beckham had reported how calm he had been in the dressing-room after the great triumph. But they had also speculated that he was ready to "explode". Eriksson thought for a moment before saying, "No, I wasn't going to explode. No, I'm not an exploder." What he is more than anything, it seems more evident by the day, is a supremely practical operator. Yesterday he was underlining again, as he said he had in several team meetings since Munich and would again before tonight's game, the need to banish, absolutely, the euphoria that came in the Olympic Stadium when Michael Owen flew in the footsteps of Sir Geoff Hurst, and Beckham and Gerrard joined him in the terrain occupied only by those of the highest ability.

"Yes, I understand why people might expect us to beat Albania 10-0 because it is true you don't really go to Germany and win 5-1. But the expectation is wrong. What happened in Germany was remarkable, and I don't really believe we were four goals better than them and it is dangerous to forget that. You might think you are better than you are.

"The Albanians are good on the ball and in a lot of their qualifying games they had an advantage in possession. We must remember that. We must be prepared to have some frustration and play through that. We must remember all the basics, and of the most important is that you don't win if you don't defend well. First you must defend well, then you can score goals."

Nor must you live in the past, even one as recent and inspiring as last Saturday night in Bavaria. "If you live in the past," said Eriksson, "you wake up with a negative surprise. The good thing is the team is young, apart from Seaman the oldest players are 26, 27, and the team has the potential go on for seven years. You can have a lot of success in that time, but you will not have it if you don't work towards it, game by game.

"I'm delighted with what happened, but I will not celebrate until October when we play Greece in the last qualifying game." Even then Eriksson will plainly step back from any other sense that the real job has just begun. "When I signed for this job I thought of June next year. I thought of the World Cup," he said.

He emphatically advised against speculation at odds of 13-2 that he would accept an overture from Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson steps down at the end of next season. "I have a job to do for England," he said, "and so I'm not interested in Manchester United."

He wouldn't say, officially, that the heroes of Munich will step out at Newcastle tonight, no more than Sir Alf Ramsey would confirm the validity of Hurst's cheerful farewell after a successful England game, "see you next trip, Alf". But as Ramsey did so long before him, Eriksson has already brought a raft of certainties to the England camp. His players know where they are and who is in command. "The most important things in football," he says, "is confidence and belief. I saw it growing in Lazio over three and a half exciting years and I hope it is growing with England. You cannot do anything without belief. But you also have to be realistic." He was asked about his idea of a good score at St James' Park. "Would you be happy with 1-0?," went the question. "I would be happier with 2-0," he laughed. That would sharpen his appetite for dinner and acclaim in London tomorrow night. Defeat, he said, would keep him at home, where he no doubt would pick sparingly at a cold dish of negative surprise.