Eriksson - wants winter break.

By Mark Bradley, PA Sport Chief Soccer Writer, Japan

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Sven-Goran Eriksson believes England's World Cup bid was harmed by club fixture demands and he has called for the introduction of a winter break in the Premiership.

The England coach believes too many demands are being placed on players such as David Beckham, who was never fully fit to perform at his peak in the tournament.

While Eriksson underlined his backing for David Seaman following his inadvertent error against Brazil and again committed his own future to England, he insisted that changes would have to be made to the fixture programme.

He arrived at the tournament with players already tired out by the demands of their clubs, just as other nations with Premiership performers such as France were similarly affected.

Both Steven Gerrard, whom Eriksson admitted "should have helped a lot", and Gary Neville were also ruled out of the tournament by injuries sustained amid the frantic build-up period.

The problem is still not one that exclusively affects only the English league, especially given the two-stage group structure of the Champions League.

However, a 20-team top-flight division, allied to two cup competitions and no winter break, is far too punishing on any leading player expected to produce the goods for his national team.

The Football Association have already revealed that Eriksson is due to attend a meeting involving club bosses at the start of next season to discuss the situation.

He made his feelings clear in the wake of England's quarter-final defeat by declaring: "You come into a World Cup and you start off with very tired players.

"That's very sad as the World Cup is a fantastic party. It's sad when the world can't see the best of the players and I'm not just talking about England.

"France might have had the same problem and other teams as well. I've heard complaints from some managers and Franz Beckenbauer has also mentioned it in an article."

Eriksson admitted the fact his team did not score a single goal in the second halves of any of their five World Cup games could have been linked to that tiredness.

"We play a lot of football in England. All of the players we had in the squad except Owen Hargreaves play in the Premiership. Our fittest player was Owen Hargreaves," he revealed.

"That's easy to understand. He had a couple of months' break during the winter, playing fewer games, and is naturally fit as he's a young boy who can run.

"However, a winter break is absolutely very important. I don't know how far we're away from that but it's something I will take up with the FA, that's for sure."

Eriksson has already given up some friendly dates, although the only real solution is to reduce the Premiership, which is hardly likely to earn the necessary two-thirds majority of the clubs involved.

"There is no meaning to push for more time with my players as there is no time available," he added.

"The only chance which I have always suggested is to try to have fewer teams in the Premiership, although I think that's impossible."

Eriksson also stressed that he didn't think England saw the best of Beckham during the tournament.

Eriksson admitted: "David Beckham can play better football than he did in this tournament although, if you consider that he had been side-lined for seven weeks, I think he did very well.

"But, when you have the problems he had, you can't expect a player to be 100 fit in the same way as he was before Christmas."

Beckham said: "I felt fit enough and that was enough for me - and that was enough for the manager.

"When you do come into a big competition like this, and have been out for nearly eight weeks, then it's going to be hard but I felt that I was coming back to full fitness."

He also felt it unjustified to claim that England would have done better had the players ruled out through injury been available - the most notable exception being midfielder Steven Gerrard.

He said: "I think the whole 23-man squad did excellently all the way through the tournament. I think it would be a little unfair of me to say that, if other players were fit, then we would have gone all the way."

Beckham admitted that he privately believed all the way through the competition that England were good enough to win the World Cup.

But he insisted that there should not be a downbeat mood over going out in the quarter-finals to Brazil and that a young squad would benefit massively from the experience.

Beckham said: "I think overall that we have done ourselves justice because the expectations were very high, and were set very high.

"I've been feeling throughout this competition that we were going to go all the way personally. I had not told anyone because I didn't want to upset anything but I had a funny feeling that was going to happen.

"It's not happened but, even though we are disappointed, to reach the point we did makes me pleased as captain for the rest of the players and proud of them.

"We have got to believe that we can get this close to the World Cup final again and everyone will learn from playing in this competition. It is good that the team is young enough so that they will get another chance. The future is bright.

"I don't think there are any problems with our game. We have to work hard at things that have gone wrong and we will do. We have got the team to do that."

Beckham admitted: "My memory of the tournament will be beating Argentina. It was disappointing to go out to Brazil but, even if people say they are not as good as they used to be, they still have got world-class players."