By Jonathan Stevenson BBC Sport in Cardiff

When England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson sat down to watch the FA Cup final, much of his focus would have been on the performance of Peter Crouch.

Gerrard has been a talisman for Liverpool all season

As things stand, Crouch is the only striker in his 23-man squad who fulfils two key requirements ahead of a World Cup finals.

One, he is not injured, and two, he has some experience of Premiership football. Which makes him more likely to spearhead England's bid than the walking-wounded pair of Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney and rookie Theo Walcott.

Worryingly for the England boss, Crouch had a quiet game - he was taken off in the second half, with the 6ft 7in hit-man struggling to acclimatise to the ferocious pace of a thrill-a-minute encounter.

However, the inspiring performance of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard may have given Eriksson food for thought.

The 25-year-old put in a performance of such breathtaking gusto it will be talked about for years, scoring two more truly magical goals to bring his tally to 23 for the season.

When Rooney suffered his metatarsal injury, the country's collective thoughts turned to just how Eriksson will cope without the 20-year-old Manchester United star.

Would Crouch get the nod to partner Owen up front? Could Walcott partner Crouch?

Or perhaps Eriksson could consider playing Gerrard in a more advanced role?

On Saturday's evidence at the Millennium Stadium, the Swede could do far worse than choose the latter.

With Liverpool 2-0 down and looking like a shadow of the side who had thrilled on their way to the final, Gerrard grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck like few players in world football can.

His first moment of inspiration was to clip an inch-perfect ball into the path of Djibril Cisse for the Frenchman to volley home.

Gerrard may find himself playing further forward

Soon after half-time he got on the score sheet himself, with a goal that owed everything to his wonderful technique as he shaped his body brilliantly to slam a bouncing ball into the top corner.

He left his best until Liverpool really needed it, 3-2 down in injury time - Gerrard, 30 yards out, pulled back that lethal right and with the truest strike of all sent the game into extra time.

It defied belief, and Gerrard kept his composure in the shoot-out too as he saw his team home once again.

Since Rooney's injury, much has been made of the fact that you cannot win a World Cup without hot-shot strikers.

Yet in Gerrard and Frank Lampard England have arguably the finest two central midfielders in the world at the moment and they have 43 goals between them this season.

France started the 1998 World Cup with Stephane Guiv'arch leading the line and they still managed to prevail - that shows it can be done without Rooney, and even Owen, if it comes to it.

On Saturday, in front of over 70,000 spectators and millions more on television, Gerrard proved he has the courage, the fight and the class to win a pressure-cooker game on his own.

Maybe the added responsibility he will be given when he links up with England, minus a fit Rooney, will drive Gerrard on to even greater feats.

He has proved he must be given greater licence to roam instead of playing as a box-to-box central midfielder.

Gerrard is at his best when he does not have to worry about last-ditch tackling and covering his back four - at Liverpool he leaves that to Xabi Alonso and the workaholic Mohamed Sissoko.

The Liverpool dynamo is at his peak and with a wave of that magic right wand has the ability to destroy a team in a flash.

Eriksson must now give him carte blanche to wreak havoc in Germany just like he did so majestically in Cardiff.