The appointment of England's first foreign coach was a controversial one in 2001. The Football Association wanted the best possible man for the job regardless of nationality and hoped Sven-Goran Eriksson would bring something different to the role.

Here, our Phil Barnett assesses the Swede's management style over the last five and a half years.

MAN MANAGEMENT

Eriksson has largely enjoyed an excellent rapport with his players. Some claim he has been too soft with the squad and has a tendency to pick the big names rather than the best players for the job. Restructuring the whole XI to accommodate both David Beckham and Shaun Wright-Phillips, and also Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, are cases in point. He reportedly sided with his players in the row following Rio Ferdinand's drug test ban but comments he made to the 'fake sheikh' about Ferdinand, Owen, Beckham and Rooney threatened to damage relations, though the atmosphere in the training camp in Baden-Baden appeared to be convivial.

TACTICS

Surprisingly for a continental manager with so much experience in Italian and Portuguese football, Eriksson's tactics were not dissimilar to the archetypal English system in terms of style of play. Unsuccessful and often-criticised deviations from 4-4-2, especially the ill-fated 'diamond formation', left many questioning his wisdom on the whiteboard. He changed to 4-5-1 for a couple of World Cup games as he puzzled how best to deploy his players and he never got the best out of them.

MOTIVATION

Eriksson has been criticised for showing a lack of passion - on the touchlines, at least. While his supporters would describe him as 'ice cool', others believe he has the motivational skills of a wet lettuce, standing reticently on the sidelines. However, there was no lack of passion in the final World Cup qualifier against Greece in 2001 or the Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey when England ground out the required 0-0 draw in intimidating circumstances.

RESULTS

His professional record does not look bad on paper with only three defeats (in normal time) in competitive matches. Those losses were against Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, France at Euro 2004 and the admittedly pitiful humbling at the hands of Northern Ireland last year.