BUTT NOTHING

In explaining his omission of Joe Cole and Lee Bowyer from the England squad, Sven-Göran Eriksson repeatedly made mention yesterday of the need to pick in-form players. If he follows that logic through to his starting XI in the European Championship qualifying match against Slovakia on Saturday, it is hard to see how he can ignore Nicky Butt.

Superb for Manchester United during the past six months despite the failings of those around him, it was Butt rather than David Beckham or Juan Sebastián Verón who struck the best pass in his club's 3-0 victory over Everton on Monday night, when he picked out the overlapping Gary Neville by threading the ball through a Polo-sized hole.

Everton's defence should not have been surprised, because England's star of the World Cup finals became such a vital component this summer that Eriksson was willing to push Paul Scholes wide left to accommodate him in the middle of midfield. No less a judge than Pelé hailed the previously underrated scrapper who, if the rest of the squad were picking the England team, would finish near the top of the ballot.

There has been a widespread assumption that Steven Gerrard's return will deny Butt a place, but it does not have to be so if Eriksson is creative. Why not pick Gerrard and Butt together, as he did to good effect in the first half of last month's friendly against Portugal? The vacancy on the left — the Bermuda triangle into which several international careers have disappeared without trace in recent years — can then be filled by the versatile Scholes.

A midfield of Beckham, Gerrard, Butt and Scholes would guarantee that Eriksson had packed the maximum of proven international talent into his starting XI and it would not be lacking for dynamism and attacking intent, even if there is not a dribbler among them.