Wise Eriksson lets the talent do the talking

The nature of football dictates that the spontaneous expression of gifted players will always be worth more than a library of coaching manuals

It was entirely predictable that having been blown off what he clearly regarded as a pedestal of tactical virtuosity, Tottenham's Glenn Hoddle promptly lamented his failure to stop the tide of Manchester United in that tumultuous second half at White Hart Lane.

The implication, which has become a curse in large areas of English football, is that the coach always has the answer. He does not. The players do, and the most successful coaches know this when they assess their players, pick their teams and elect to perform in a certain way.

"I knew what was wrong," said Hoddle, "because we stopped pressuring the ball, but it was hard to get it across from the bench." No doubt it was, but then think how hard it might have been for the Spurs players if 30-odd thousand fans, mindful of the coach's problem, had suddenly fallen silent. Imagine having Hoddle's theories pouring into one ear while Juan Sebastian Veron was cheerfully crying "adios" into the other. This also pushes to one side any question about the accuracy of Hoddle's diagnosis. Were Spurs suffering from a tactical malaise or the kind of discouragement you might feel if handed a tin opener and told to take on the Sixth Fleet?

As United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson was quick to report, the tactical lexicon stayed in his pocket at half-time. Having replaced the injured midfielder Nicky Butt with a forward, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a natural move in the circumstances of a two-goal deficit, he basically reminded his players that they were critically underperforming and there was no magical formula, tactical or otherwise, to remedy that.

They simply had to remember they were the best team in the land and it was time they started to show it.

It might be argued that there were sound psychological reasons for Hoddle's contention that Tottenham's failure was about their straying from a winning game plan rather than United's extravagant statement of innate superiority. Players, this theory goes, do have to believe in the authority of their coach, and his capacity to narrow the margins opened up by any disparity of natural ability. But because of the nature of the game, and the fact that the spontaneous expression of great talent will always be worth more than a library of coaching manuals, the role of the coach can never be God-like. A coach marshals players, he doesn't and cannot plot every phase of their expression. Hoddle's comments suggest another reality and for some at least it will surely smack of an old vanity, a belief – much pandered to these days and relentlessly suggested during his reign as England manager – that the tactical acumen of a coach is more important than the sum of his players' talent.

It is a way of thinking which, happily and crucially, has not yet infected the work of the England coach Sven Goran Eriksson as he prepares for the last stride of his extraordinary transformation of England's World Cup qualifying campaign against Greece on Saturday. While in charge of England, Hoddle talked relentlessly of learning curves and the need for players to take "new things on board". He seemed to see himself as an educator. He wasn't, and couldn't be – no more than even Sir Alf Ramsey. He was a man whose job was to make the best of what was available to him in an extremely limited time. He had to settle on his best team, build their confidence and give them a way of playing that was most suited to their talent.

Eriksson has been more or less unswerving in such a work plan, his one aberration – the playing of Emile Heskey along the left – coming, perhaps, as a reflection of a dire deficiency in that area of the field. At all other times he has refrained from asking of his players anything beyond those attributes they had already displayed while performing for their clubs. The result is a sense of confidence and purpose which suggests that the blow of losing Michael Owen, the player who has plainly benefited most from the certainties Eriksson has imposed on what was before the shifting ground laid down by Hoddle and Kevin Keegan, should be seen as no more than a passing inconvenience.

We can be sure that Owen's absence will not provoke any tactical tinkering against the Greeks at Old Trafford. Owen will be replaced, we can be nearly certain, by either Andy Cole or Robbie Fowler. Given Fowler's superb performance in Athens earlier this year, his beautifully created goal against Albania at St James' Park a few weeks ago, and the apparent revival of his spirits on the same ground last Sunday, the suspicion here is that he may get the vote.

It would certainly be a re-statement of belief in a classic football truth, the one that was so riotously celebrated at White Hart Lane last Saturday afternoon.

It is that players tend to win football matches, and the more talented they are the more likely they are to do so.