During Eriksson's time, England were knocked out in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cups on penalties, and left the 2002 World Cup at the same stage after being beaten by Brazil.
Sven - The 'Nearly Man'!
Sam Allardyce: "Sven has got one of the best records in Europe - that's why he was chosen as England coach.
"Hopefully that experience would have rubbed off on England but they didn't quite make it.
"But the bottom line doesn't fall with the coach. If you look back at the last 12 years it was either a referee's decision or an England player missing a penalty that made the difference between getting into a semi-final or final or getting knocked out of a major tournament.
"As a manager there's not a lot of influence you can have over that.
"It would be more than a decent start if beat Manchester City - that would take us to 14 points from seven games and that's Champions League form and a top-three or four finish if we keep going that way.
"We have had some very winnable fixtures, which we have done, and Manchester City is one of our biggest tests in the Premier League so far this season.
"I thought they may have struggled to begin with because, a bit like ourselves, there were so many new players.
"They got off to a very good start though, and that instilled a huge amount of confidence.
"Sven's had big backing from the new owners and it looks like he's spent that money very wisely indeed.
"Micah Richards has gained a vast amount of experience in a short period of time and has used his outstanding attributes to become not just a regular player for Man City but for England as well.
"I think has still got a good bit to learn from a tactical and positional point of view but his pace gets him out of trouble when he makes a wrong decision and that makes up for it.
"In particular, his move to a new position from full-back has helped and he is now a truly outstanding central defender."