SVEN-Goran Eriksson will hand Newcastle midfielder Nicky Butt responsibility for ensuring that England make a solid start to their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Butt won his 36th international cap as Eriksson's side strolled to a 3-0 win over the Ukraine at St James' Park on Wednesday.

The former Manchester United star filled his preferred holding role at the base of midfield, with Steven Gerrard and David Beckham operating on the flanks and Frank Lampard given license to support the front two.

The tactic seemed to restrict England's attacking options in the opening period, with the home side looking far more dangerous after the break with Beckham switched inside and the exuberant Shaun Wright-Phillips causing havoc on the right wing.

But Eriksson is aware that a home friendly against the Ukraine is a different proposition to the two crucial World Cup qualifiers England face in Austria and Poland next month.

Defensive solidity will be the name of the game in Vienna and Katowice, and Butt's combative skills will play a key role in protecting a back four that will still be without Rio Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate, and could also be lacking Arsenal's Sol Campbell.

"I wouldn't feel vulnerable with Beckham and Gerrard in the middle," said Eriksson.

"But Nicky Butt is a more natural sitting midfielder.

"In international football, you normally need a sitting midfielder. Most teams today tend to drop one attacker deep and it's very difficult for two centre-halves to pick that player up.

"That player normally creates problems for the backline because the defenders don't want to push out to him and the midfielders don't want to get sucked too deep.

"Nicky Butt is the most natural choice of a player to sit and deal with that situation."

Gerrard and Lampard played at the heart of midfield in the European Championships, and the former looked far from comfortable in the troublesome left midfield slot on Wednesday night.

Most of Gerrard's best moments came when he strayed inside, while Beckham too improved after the interval when he occupied a more central berth.

Even with the international retirement of Paul Scholes, the competition in England's midfield remains intense, but Eriksson insists that something has to give if he is to accommodate his first-choice quartet.

"Steven, David, Nicky and Frank all prefer to play in the middle," he admitted. "But that cannot happen. If you want to have those four in your team, then someone has to play wide on the left.

"As far as I'm concerned, the best choice with those four is Beckham to the right and Gerrard to the left.

"I don't know if that will change before we play Austria but, for the Ukraine game, I wanted to play the best possible team from the start and that meant playing those four midfielders."

Despite a series of indifferent displays in Portugal, Beckham remains the first name on Eriksson's team-sheet.

The Swede has showed commendable faith in his skipper, and that loyalty was rewarded on Wednesday as Beckham produced the kind of all-action display that used to be his forte.

The Real Madrid star has given up weight training in order to shed the extra pounds he piled on before Euro 2004, a move that already looks to have resulted in a leaner, hungrier England captain.

"I'm quite sure that David Beckham will have a great season if he stays free of injuries," said Eriksson. "He wants to show that criticism has no effect on him at all.

"I'm sure David Beckham knows what he can do and what he can't do. I'm absolutely sure that he's supremely confident about his abilities as a football player.''