Peter Taylor has expressed his desire to continue his part-time role with the England national side, should the Football Association ask for his help.
The Leicester boss has said is he would be happy to lead England in their February friendly with Spain, while the FA look to clarify the situation with incoming coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, as long as it did not adversely affect his role at Filbert Street.
The FA have not yet indicated whether Eriksson will take charge of England for the next three World Cup qualifiers in March and June, although it seems Lazio may allow the Swede to do so even though he is contracted to the club until June 2001.
However, the FA are unlikely to press the matter for the Spain friendly, meaning that Taylor’s caretaker role could be extended for one more match.
Eriksson and Taylor have not met to discuss the situation, but the Englishman insists that last night’s performance in a 1-0 defeat against Italy, should give the incoming manager plenty of encouragement.
An inexperienced England side played admirably in Turin, matching the Euro 2000 finalists in terms of possession and performance in a fixture where the result was relatively unimportant.
The settled formation, and fluid passing rhythm of the England side belied the youngsters’ relative inexperience at times and England were unfortunate not to have returned from Italy with a draw after two justified penalty claims were dismissed.
Taylor felt that the performance demonstrated the depth of talent that will be available to the new manager when he eventually takes over. He commented:
"Sven-Goran Eriksson is going to be England manager for five years and I think he's seen a lot of promise there from players that he will be handling when he takes over.
"We could have done with a result as England always want to win every game that they play. But I thought that being a friendly, the most important thing was the performance.
"A lot of players have given a good performance. The team did look organised, we played some good football and had seven chances to Italy's three in the second half."
The former under-21 coach was also impressed by Nick Barmby’s contribution last night but he reserved special praise for Rio Ferdinand and Emile Heskey.
"I thought that Rio played with a lot of control,” Taylor said. “He was unlucky with the goal as his clearance went straight to the goalscorer. It was a wonderful goal but he won't score many more like that again.
”Emile was also a real threat all night. He led the line well and is getting better and better. Nick Barmby also showed so much intelligence by making holes for others but I could go on for quite a while as I thought a lot of players did themselves a power of good."
Italy's winner came courtesy of a 25-yard drive off the underside of the bar from Reno Gattuso on 57 minutes, giving the Italians victory in a game in which they posed little threat, despite the presence of brothers Fillipo and Simone Inzaghi.
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