David Beckham is approaching the international crossroads - and which way will he go? His England performances have been uninspiring and Cheif Sports Writer Scott Wilson looks at the role of the captain.

FROM spectacularly unstoppable to seemingly undroppable, the last four years have seen the golden boy of English football lose some of his lustre.

When David Beckham inspired England to the 2-2 draw with Greece that booked their place in 2002's World Cup finals, he did so as a player at the very peak of his powers.

The skipper's last-minute leveller was merely the climax to an awesome all-round display in which he single-handedly hauled his side out of a stupor that looked like condemning them to a hazardous play-off.

'Goldenballs' headed a 'golden generation' that was all set to finally deliver the major trophy England fans had dreamed of for the best part of 40 years.

What happened to that side was grimly predictable - a dramatic quarter-final defeat to Brazil that preceded an even more heart-wrenching reverse to Portugal two years later - but the fate of its skipper has been rather more difficult to explain.

Whereas once Beckham was the heartbeat of the England side, now he is more like its appendix - everyone knows it is there, but nobody is really sure what it does.

As other players have grown in stature, so Beckham's importance has shrunk to the point where numerous managers and pundits are openly advocating not only stripping him of the captain's armband, but also of his place in the team itself.

Sven-Goran Eriksson has stood resolutely behind his skipper and, only yesterday, the England coach revealed that he was "embarrassed" to be constantly defending a player he continues to view as one of the best in the world.

"He's in the squad, he's in the team and he's the captain," said Eriksson. "It's as simple as that. I think we put an extremely high expectation on him.

"If you look at some games in the past, he carried the rest of the team on his shoulders. I don't think it's fair to expect that every time."

Indeed it isn't and the Greece game - hailed by many of Beckham's critics as the end of his profitable period and the start of a gradual decline - helps to explain why the midfielder seems to have become so peripheral.

Instead of focusing on how good Beckham was in that game, it is instructive to dwell on how badly the rest of his team-mates performed.

Steven Gerrard freely admits that his display was his worst in an England shirt, while Paul Scholes suffered stage-fright to the extent that he was unable to complete even the simplest of short-range passes.

Beckham was everywhere on the pitch because he had to be. He made the tackles that should have been won by the aged Martin Keown and broke into the forward positions that should have been the domain of the hapless Emile Heskey.

In short, he had the freedom to go wherever he liked and do whatever he wanted because other players had neither the talent nor the temperament to do the job themselves.

Today, thankfully, that is not the case and the mutiple roles Beckham once performed have been spread throughout the team.

Gerrard's emergence as a player of true international class has given him the confidence to produce the pinpoint 50-yard passes that were once reserved for the skipper.

Frank Lampard has arrived to dominate central midfield and make the kind of forward forays at which Beckham once excelled.

And Wayne Rooney has shown a willingness to drift into deep or wide positions, posing defenders the kind of difficulties that his captain's mobility once caused.

The result is that Beckham is no longer sure of where he fits into the team. He can still deliver a startling set-piece and, if his team-mates are to be believed, he remains a valued and admired leader.

But, once the whistle blows, he is finding himself physically and mentally constrained by everything that is going on around him.

On Saturday, it was telling that, every time Beckham drifted inside from his right flank, Northern Ireland's midfielders found it far easier to contain their English opponents.

With Joe Cole also coming in from his flank, the central third became horribly congested. Lampard and Gerrard are a dominant, driving force in their own right so, whenever Beckham joins them, England are left trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle.

Clearly, the skipper feels a need to impose his authority on the game but, if he is to regain his status as one of England's leading lights, he is going to have to accept that he does not need to be everywhere, doing everything, to help his side succeed.

Less can be more and Beckham needs to rediscover some of the diligence and discipline that made him such a valuable asset in the first place.

Instead of wandering here, there and everywhere, England would be a far more balanced and dangerous side if their right midfielder was to be exactly that.

A host of hopeful forays infield are worth far less than one killer ball from the flank and, instead of letting Beckham try to influence everything, Eriksson needs to convince his captain that the best contribution he can make is to let his team-mates impose themselves from time to time.

Despite some of his disappointing recent displays, the England side is still far better with their current number seven in it.

But, if Beckham is to remain an integral part of that side, he must learn that, by trying to do everything, he can sometimes end up doing nothing at all.