"I'm very happy with Paul Scholes," Sven-Goran Eriksson said on Saturday night. "When he gets the ball, things happen." But they did not happen often enough in Vaduz.
It is now 20 games, after all, since Scholes last scored for England. This is the man Sir Alex Ferguson described, long ago, as "the best finisher in the club". So long ago, in fact, that Eric Cantona was still a member of the Manchester United squad, which means that Scholes was being judged by a pretty high standard. Since he is still only 28, one imagines that his technical ability has yet to begin the process of natural deterioration. His performance in the Rheinpark stadium on Saturday, however, gave not a single clue that goalscoring has ever been a part of his repertoire.’