Were the crowd's boos at the introduction of Owen Hargreaves personal or were they directed at Eriksson for the combination of changes which did little to ease England's fears Paraguay might steal a point at the death?
The introduction of Michael Carrick for Owen would have resolved all the issues that had affected the team up to this point.
It would have allowed Steven Gerrard to go forward – not Joe Cole, given that a more natural holding midfielder would have taken up where the out of sorts Owen left off. The pace of the game could have slowed down while ensuring possession was maintained with Carrick on the pitch. Instead Cole lasted only about 25 minutes as the second striker.
52% of readers who voted in our poll last week said the Spurs playmaker would have been in their starting line-up to face Paraguay ahead of his former West Ham teammates Cole and Frank Lampard.
It would have been a hard call to leave out either one of the Chelsea pair from the start, but with Owen off and Eriksson in no mind to make a straight swap by bringing on Theo Walcott, the England coach ignored the recent friendly against Hungary, when England went 2-0 ahead, despite opting for a central defender on that occasion to play in the role Gerrard started in on Saturday.
Paraguay's Carlos Paredes said: "Gerrard in that position, as a defensive holding midfielder, did not look comfortable against us. We often had a man advantage in that area. On paper, their midfield should have dominated us. Instead, we dominated them, especially in the second half. We only lost the upper hand when they brought in another defensive midfielder [Hargreaves]. I think that's because we played well, but, yes, I think Gerrard would have created many more problems for us if he had been used in his true position." (The Times)
Rio Ferdinand recognised the problem from his own vantage point in central defence "In the second half particularly, the ball kept going forward and coming straight back at us in defence. We weren't able to get out of our own half. There was too big a gap between the midfield and the forwards and that caused us problems. We weren't able to get out with the ball and keep it in the opposition's half." (The Sun)
In The Times, Matt Dickinson wrote: ‘Few sides are blessed with England's array of individual talent but the lingering concern is that, when it comes to technique and possession, they may struggle to be ranked in the top 10. One of the key tests will be whether they can control a match against opponents who will be more used to jealously guarding possession. Give the ball away as cheaply (as they did on Saturday) against a good team and England will not win the World Cup. Eriksson must prove that the transformation that has come over him in recent weeks is not an illusion.'