MATT LE TISSIER believes former Saints team-mate Wayne Bridge can solve England's left-sided dilemma - by slotting in at full-back with Ashley Cole playing left midfield.

Paul Scholes played on the left of midfield against France in England's opening Euro 2004 group match on Sunday.

The Manchester United player is expected to retain his place in the starting line-up for this afternoon's crunch tie with Switzerland after recovering from an ankle problem.

But another right-footer, Steven Gerrard, might be moved out to the left side of midfield as Sven-Goran Eriksson reverts to the controversial 'diamond' formation.

However, former Saints midfielder Le Tissier - who won eight England caps during the 1990s - insists Eriksson has overlooked a more balanced feel to his England side.

"For me the thing which stands out more than anything, which Sven has never tried, is to play Wayne Bridge at left-back and then Ashley Cole in left midfield," reflected Le Tissier.

"You then would have that balance on the left side.

"England tried something similar against Macedonia at St Mary's a couple of years back, but it was with Bridge on the left wing.

"He played the first 30 games or so of his Southampton career at left midfield and was not effective at all.

"But when he played at full-back on the overlap behind Chris Marsden, it worked really well."

FORMER England assistant manager Lawrie McMenemy previewed tonight's crunch Euro 2004 tie with Switzerland and confessed: "Defeat is absolutely unthinkable!"

The Saints managerial legend was Graham Taylor's right-hand man during England's European Championship campaign in Sweden 12 years ago.

England failed to qualify from their group after failing to win any of their three matches back then, but McMenemy is confident Sven-Goran Eriksson's men can avoid that humbling experience.

McMenemy was a stunned onlooker in the stadium along with thousands of other England fans last Sunday when France grabbed a dramatic victory.

He said: "Let's not get too downhearted.

"Losing as we did to France was a freak experience.

"But all the England fans applauded the players at the end - they knew we had played terrifically well for 90 minutes.

"We marked and defended well. Though we defended a bit deeper than we normally would because of Thierry Henry, our familiarity of him didn't breed contempt - it bread awareness and we handled him better than if we'd never come across him before.

"Our defeat wasn't like the Portugal v Greece game where the Portuguese had their backsides kicked."

McMenemy added: "I am sure the squad will have be working on a few things in training, like defending set-pieces.

"It seems more goals are being scored now from set-pieces than ever before - France scored from a free-kick and a penalty.

"Though you have the best players in England in the squad, it's always been the case that you don't get them together often enough to work on the basics.

"The longer they stay in, the more they will get the chance to work on things like defending set-pieces."

McMenemy repeated his call for ex-Saints star Wayne Bridge to be handed a chance to impress.

Saints' FA Cup winning boss said: "I do feel Bridge and Ashley Cole could play together on the left, like they did at St Mary's for a while.

"I see that Owen Hargreaves might play. He did nothing wrong the other night but he's not a tackler, he's not a toughie.

"Beckham needs to do better, he needs to do it for his own PR machine. There's more to come from him, he will be wanting to do something a bit special."