Group Six/Poland v England: A great deal has changed in Katowice since Alf Ramsey brought his team here in 1973, attempting to qualify for the following year's World Cup writes Richard Williams in Katowice.

There are fewer coal mines and many more clothes shops, the great dark 19th-century Catholic church has been carefully restored and Matt Damon is battling Russian oligarchs in The Bourne Supremacy at a brand-new multiplex. What has not changed is the crucial nature of a football match between Poland and England.

Defeat in Silesia hastened the end of Ramsey's tenure as England's manager and after Saturday's unhappy draw in Vienna there are plenty of people who think Sven-Goran Eriksson is only 90 profitless minutes away from a similar fate. Were that to happen in the aftermath of tonight's Group Six qualifying match, it would be a new experience for the 56-year-old Swede.

"I've been a manager for many years and I've never been sacked," he said yesterday, "so I don't know the feeling. The longer you stay in the job, the bigger the possibility is, of course. But once again I'm absolutely not thinking about it, I'm not worried about it, because what I'm thinking about is the Poland game, about trying to win and trying to play good football."

Before his squad left Vienna on Monday, Eriksson called a meeting and took them through the 2-2 draw with Austria. His basic diagnosis - highly disputed, it must be said - remains that England played "good football" for an hour before letting a two-goal lead slip away in a 15-minute period of all-round shoddiness.

"I showed the players a video of the most important moments of the game," he said, "and I talked about attacking and defending. During moments in the second half we didn't attack well and we didn't defend well."

Perhaps realising that plenty of people not earning £3.5 million-a-year would have been capable of so superficial an analysis, he became marginally more specific after being told Steven Gerrard had claimed the players became "nervous" during the second half.

"I haven't talked to Steven about that," he said, "but my opinion is that they didn't become nervous. Fifteen or 20 minutes into the second half we stopped taking our positions, we started to run with the ball a little bit, we lost the ball and we gave them chances to make counter-attacks, which never happened during the first 45 minutes, when we had a huge amount of possession. But we stopped doing things simply. We made football complicated. And when we forgot to do the simple things, they scored twice."

The man who forgot the simplest thing of all was David James, who allowed a deflected long-range shot to pass under his body. After the match Eriksson stated unequivocally that James would play tonight. When asked yesterday if this would be the most important game of the goalkeeper's career, his defence was a little more muted.

"When we make mistakes in football," he said, "we're criticised. I always say, fair enough. And especially after a game we should have won, of course we're criticised. So the next game is important for all of us."

The inclusion in tonight's team of David Beckham will be determined solely on the grounds of fitness, following his treatment for a bruised rib. The object of much criticism after Saturday's match, the captain retains his manager's support and took part in the full squad training session yesterday.

"I haven't considered dropping him and I can't agree that he played badly," Eriksson said. "I don't know how many times he switched play from right to left, which was always important for us. I agree that he can play better. But to drop him because he's not playing well, I don't agree with that."

Eriksson responded to the accusation he shows too much loyalty to his star players in general, regardless of current form.

"To be loyal to your football players, why shouldn't you do that? If I think some of the players should be dropped, I drop them. And if I don't drop them, it's because I don't think they should be dropped. "

Had his players held on to their lead in Vienna, a draw tonight might have seemed a satisfactory result. After the disappointment of Saturday, however, the pressure is on for England to take all three points and reassert their status as the group's favourites.

"After one draw it would be better to win tonight," Eriksson said, "but there are a lot of games to play still and I'm not agreeing with those who are trying to panic after one game. I'm sure we'll qualify for Germany. The will to do that in the squad is great. Are they panicking? Absolutely not. They're calm and confident, very solid, very optimistic."

PROBABLE TEAMS

Poland: Dudek; Mila, Rzasa, Zewlakow, Glowacki; Bak, Zienczuk, Krzynowek, Zurawski; Lewandowski, Rasiak.

England: James; Neville, Terry, King, A Cole; Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Bridge, Defoe, Owen.

Referee: S Farina (Italy).