England captain David Beckham is ready to step into Steven Gerrard's central midfield role for the World Cup Group Six qualifier in Austria on Saturday.

Gerrard is doubtful with a groin injury but Beckham told a news conference on Friday he would be happy to tuck in from his usual England role on the right to fill the gap.

"I usually play in centre midfield for my club Real Madrid and it's a position I'm confident and comfortable in," he said.

Beckham said England could also cover for striker Wayne Rooney, one of their best performers at Euro 2004 but sidelined since the tournament with a foot injury.

"We have Jermain Defoe and Alan Smith who can do that job too. It's great to see young talent coming in," added Beckham, who set England a minimum target of four points from the Austria game and one against Poland in Chorzow on Wednesday.

"Qualifying for the finals is the most important thing now, hopefully the summer is out of the way and in the past," he said of the team's Euro 2004 campaign.

"In the last couple of competitions we haven't gone as far as we expected," Beckham said. "With the talent we've got in the team we should get further and hopefully in Germany it's going to be our year.

"I don't lie when I sit here and say I do believe we can win a competition."

Beckham was on the same wavelength as manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

GETTING SERIOUS

Though the Swede said last month's 3-0 friendly win over Ukraine was serious, Eriksson told a news conference on Friday: "Now it's more serious. It's about getting points and qualifying for the World Cup. My dream is the same as yours, to play the final of a big tournament and hopefully win it."

England face an Austria side who are ranked 90th in the world and lost 3-1 to 2006 hosts Germany in a friendly last month but Eriksson is not under-estimating them.

"It's going to be a real challenge. As long as I've been in charge of England, we've never had an easy qualification game. We thought maybe it would be easy against Albania, who are not a hugely famous football nation, but it wasn't.

"We had to fight and we were a little bit lucky as well," he said of the World Cup qualifier in 2001. England eventually won 3-1 but could easily have drawn 2-2 after the hosts had a stoppage-time equaliser disallowed.

"I expect a very difficult game. We are maybe the favourites, but Austria have nothing to lose," Eriksson said.

Criticised by the British media in the wake of Euro 2004, Eriksson did not want to discuss his future if the next two games ended in disappointment.

"I've never thought my destiny be written in Austria and Poland," he said.