Eriksson: Beckham in the team on merit

England boss Sven Goran Eriksson insists David Beckham is the right man to lead the country.

The Real Madrid ace has taken criticism this week over his role with the England team, but Eriksson says: "David Beckham is in my squad, he's in my team and he's my captain. And that's it."

"I think he is still an extremely good footballer who is always very important for us. For anyone to say that Beckham should not be in the England team is very hard. I feel embarrassed just to talk about that."

"He did a very good job against Northern Ireland on Saturday but the demands on him are extremely high and it's not fair to expect him to carry the team on his shoulders every time."

"Maybe in the past he needed to do that. Now we have more leaders in the team than we had some years ago."

"But I still think that David will be the captain at the World Cup next year."

He also said: "David is absolutely not in the starting XI because of any other reasons than football. Absolutely not."

"He is in the team because he is a very good captain and if you asked the 23 members of the squad they would all agree with that."