THE future for England is flat-packed and Swedish. Call it the Ikea midfield formation, if you will.

But against Iceland, it glittered far more than any diamond had done previously for Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The England coach had, admittedly, come up with the diamond precisely because his side were short of left-sided options, with Paul Scholes struggling to make any impact against Slovakia two years ago.

A half-time change led to a second-half revival and a key qualification victory. But not all u-turns are necessarily failures and Eriksson went back to the future for England's final warm-up game against Iceland.

It worked with spectacular results, as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard ran the game from more customary roles in central midfield, while Wayne Rooney had the space in which to shine with two fine goals.

While Lampard was also on target, Scholes may have fluffed yet another international chance to score, but at least he seemed rejuvenated in his approach play, even on the left flank.

Potential worries still abound for England against France on Sunday in Lisbon.

After all, Scholes was regularly lured inside and the amount of space which could be available to Robert Pires or Zinedine Zidane is alarming.

However, Eriksson insisted: ''Of course, if Scholes comes in and we lose the ball, we don't have our shape. But hopefully we can cope with that and delay the play a little bit.

''I don't think you can move Gerrard or Lampard out there to cover in that case as then we lose our shape in the centre. It's better to lose your shape on the wing as they won't score from out there.

''To be honest with you, whichever way you play, Zidane will be a headache for you. He's a headache to everyone. He was selected the number one player for the past 100 years. So let's just hope he doesn't make too big problems for us.

''If we marked him man for man then we should lose a lot from our own play. I'm not prepared to do that against anyone.''

Eriksson will instead send out his team to play their own game, conscious of the threats which France pose, but not in awe of their opponents.

He has, in truth, not made a final decision on tactics, having remarked only last week that he would play a diamond against the French and was only trying out this new formation for later in the tournament.

''So many times we've played 4-4-2 and we've also played the diamond, so I don't see any problems. This squad can do both,'' he insisted.

''It is up to us to decide and I think we might play one way in this game and another way in the other.''

However, his England predecessors Terry Venables and Sir Bobby Robson have admitted in newspaper columns they are in favour of a flat 4-4-2.

Then again, the Swede knows as well as anyone that while tactical decisions can lose games - as Claudio Ranieri against Monaco and Kevin Keegan against Germany found to their cost - they rarely win them.

Good players and team performances are the key, and Eriksson's main aim over the next week is to ensure his side are at their peak.

After early misses from both Scholes and Lampard, the Chelsea midfielder seized on a one-two with Scholes with 25 minutes gone to convert a deflected 20-yard shot before Rooney stole the show.

Just two minutes later, England were further ahead as David Beckham's quick throw-in found Gary Neville, whose touch took him past Hermann Hreidarsson to cut the ball back to Rooney, who swept his shot home.

Having left the crowd chanting his name after showing superb control to shield the ball from four opponents, he surpassed even that feat as he struck his fifth England goal from 25 yards out.

England showed some defensive uncertainty in the absence of John Terry as Heidar Helguson pounced from close range.

But further goals from Darius Vassell (two) and Wayne Bridge underlined England's superiority.