Olsen's rigorous Danes to 'send England home'

The patriot in Jan Molby can see no one to stop Denmark. The pundit in him suspects the quarter-finals might be as far as they go. But the former Liverpool midfielder, a member of the "Danish Dynamite" side of the mid-1980s, is in no doubt about one thing – they will send England home.

Molby, who is using the brief summer break from managing Hull City to work at the World Cup in what he calls "the Big Ron role" for the Copenhagen-based TV2, believes the key to Denmark reaching the last eight lies in the tactical rigour of his former international team-mate, Morten Olsen. Under Olsen, the Danes have not lost a competitive fixture since Euro 2000.

"I think we'll beat England," Molby said in his distinctive Scouse-Scandinavian brogue. "And the reason is that the coach has devised a system to suit the players' capabilities. Everyone knows his job, there are no prima donnas, there's a great spirit and they are always brilliantly prepared for the strengths of other teams.

"Denmark play more of a 4-3-3 formation, with two natural wide attackers, so we're going to get some joy down the flanks against England's 4-4-2. While other countries are struggling for wingers, we're blessed with four because we have Peter Lovenkrands and Martin Jorgensen as back-up to Jesper Gronkjaer and Dennis Rommedahl."

The Danish line-up can be deconstructed further to 4-2-1-3, with Stig Tofting and Thomas Gravesen shielding the back four and servicing the wings with unfussy passing. The tattooed Tofting carries more weight than most, like Molby in his pomp, but as the former Anfield playmaker said: "The Danes love his no-nonsense style. No flicks and farts."

Jon Dahl Tomasson usually plays off the front three, in which Ebbe Sand is flanked by the wingers. Against France on Tuesday, however, Olsen left out Sand and reinforced midfield with Christian Poulsen, deploying Tomasson as a lone striker.

The result was another win for Denmark and another goal for Tomasson, making it four in three matches. Tomasson, who joins Milan next month, embodies the turnaround in Denmark's fortunes since Olsen succeeded Bo Johansson. In 1997 he moved from Heerenveen to Newcastle, but lasted only one largely barren, homesick year before joining Feyenoord.

"Jon has emerged as an high-quality player," said Molby. "Others who have really impressed me are Martin Laursen, the centre-back, and Thomas Sorensen, who must be one of the best five or six keepers in the world.

"But I keep coming back to the system. Morten knew he didn't have any outrageous talents like a Michael Laudrup, so he made a virtue of organisation. The only one who has almost got the better of him was Senegal's coach, Bruno Metsu. In the second half he went to four up front to make our wide men do more defensive work.

"Some Danish supporters think Morten is too dour, too Germanic. But you judge a coach by how he uses the material he has to work with. And he was shrewd in appointing Michael [Laudrup] to help him because he's the best we've ever had and everyone loves him."

Laudrup and Olsen were key figures when Denmark made their finals debut in 1986. After beating Scotland, they thumped Uruguay 6-1. Before the last group game, against West Germany, they knew they would play Spain in the quarter-finals if they finished top and Morocco by coming second.

"We had a team meeting and decided to go for the win," Molby recalled. "We'd never beaten the Germans and our coach, Sepp Piontek, was German. The truth is we felt we could take them all. Anyway, we won that one and were one-up on Spain in the 44th minute when Jesper Olsen did a terrible back-pass and Emilio Butragueño nipped in to equalise. When they went 2-1 up we went for naïve, all-out attack. We lost 5-1 and even their penalty came from a counter-attack."

Molby, who appeared in all four matches, believes they could have gone all the way. "We had players at Juventus, Valencia and Bayern Munich. Frank Arnesen and Soren Lerby were as good as any midfielders in the world, and at 36 Morten Olsen had become a stylish, world-class sweeper in the Franz Beckenbuaer mould. Then there was Preben Elkjaer up front, and of course Michael.

"We were a fantastic side. To this day the only football video I own is of us beating the Soviet Union 4-2 in a World Cup qualifer from 1985. I was on the bench and it's the best match I've ever seen. I played in some great games at Liverpool, but that match in Copenhagen was a contest in the truest sense.

"Today's squad are at so-called lesser clubs and everything I read said this was a dour team with no stars. Compared with 1986 they're probably right. But unlike that day against Spain in Mexico, we're very compact now and never look like we'll get exposed anywhere."

"If there's one thing we miss it's that magical player who can nick a result for you out of nothing. That might just be what stops us in the end." But England, maintained Molby, would not be the beneficiaries.