Eriksson won't rush Rooney vs. Turkey

LONDON (AP) -- Despite England's failure to score more than two goals against soccer minnow Liechtenstein, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson doesn't plan to unleash 17-year-old star striker Wayne Rooney from the start against Turkey on Wednesday.

Goals by Michael Owen and David Beckham in Vaduz earned England a routine 2-0 victory over a team which has won just one of its 40 competitive games.

In the light of a dismal 2-2 Euro 2004 tie with Macedonia followed by a 3-1 loss at home to Australia in a friendly game, Saturday's was a performance which drew even more criticism because of England's inability to score five or six goals against such weak opposition.

But Everton striker Rooney, who almost scored when he came on as a late substitute, must wait his chance to start, Eriksson says.

"I think Wayne Rooney is ready but only part-time," the Swede said on Sunday. "I don't think we should expect him to come in and resolve a game against Turkey.

"It could happen, who knows, if he comes on, as he's physically strong, good on the ball, quick and he scores goals," the England coach said.

"He might be good enough to start but we'll see. Let me think about it but maybe starting him isn't fair on him.

"Sometimes I am accused for picking him in the squad and suddenly people want him to play from the start," Eriksson said.

"I don't know if I'm too cautious. He deserves to be in the squad and let's see what happens on Wednesday."

Rooney's chances of starting were boosted when Liverpool's Emile Heskey suffered a knee injury in the game against Liechtenstein. If he's not fit, the other alternatives are Arsenal's Francis Jeffers and Darius Vassell of Aston Villa plus the option of moving Manchester United's Paul Scholes forward from midfield.

Eriksson said he felt Heskey would recover in time to meet the Turks in the crunch Group 7 matchup at Sunderland's Stadium of Light stadium. Two points behind, England badly needs a victory to go top of the group bearing in mind the two teams still have to meet in Istanbul in the final round of games Oct. 11

"Emile didn't seem too bad at halftime, he said it was no problem to go on," Eriksson said. "But he started limping after a while in the second-half and so we took him off.

"We will see if it's only a knock or not. I think Heskey will be OK for Wednesday, I hope so."

The England coach said he was satisfied with the result against Liechtenstein but acknowledged that the team would have to play better against Turkey.

"I think we did a good professional job, if you take away the first few minutes and the last 10 minutes, we did what we had to do," he said.

"It will be a completely different game [against Turkey]. It's not 100 percent sure that we'll play like we did [against Liechtenstein] -- hopefully better."

 

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