Taxi for McClaren?
How many of you think that England’s defeat to Russia was the result of Steve McClaren’s tactical ineptitude and an acute inability to motivate his players?
There’s talk of blaming Rooney but as Scott says, you cannot blame Rooney for a refereeing mistake. The fact that Rooney scored an opportunistic goal hid the fact that England were on the defensive, that the midfield partnership came a little unstuck and that Macca’s subs were ridiculous – you don’t bring on workhorses (Downing, Lampard) to save a game.
So – what do you guys think? Will McClaren be fired now, or will he get a stay of execution till the Croatia game (I honestly don’t see him staying on beyond that game, regardless of whether England qualify or not)?
Our friends over at Subside Sports are selling the shirt above – be one of the first to own it.
whayy, nice to know im not the only one that watches soccer am
taxi for McLAAARReeen, lets be honest, russia are facing estonia second from bottom and andora, havent won a match plus we need croatia to lose to maca(cant spell lol) which wont happen and thats me leaving out our match against croatia, thank the heavens its at home-isnt it?
He was obviously not the fans favourite when chosen by the FA. Since that time he has proved why.
The appointment of McClaren was wrong and a bad decision. If England fail to qualify it is down to the failings of the FA. This resembles the situation in Government where Brown took over from Blair and the rotten core that was there from when Blair was in charge, remains.
Make no doubt about it, England were not drawn into a tough group (e.g. Scotland). We should have been able to beat teams like Macedonia, Israel and even Croatia considering the football level in this country.
Now it is a joke.
Always easy to blame the manager, although McClaren has about as much flare as soggy firework. It’s because our players are thick! Stupid! Uneducated! How else do you explain the fact that although they are extremely skillful, they simply can’t win – especially the really big games? Whereas our rugby team are bright enough to plot their way through a team and beat the best in the world without the best team?
I’ll bet that the USA (no I’m not a yank) will win the World Cup before we do again? Why? Because while they are kicking a ball around, they’re working their socks off at university getting an education – while our 18 year old budding footballers are our nicking cars and shooting each other between games.
Put the brains of our rugby team into the heads of our football team and we’d win the bloody lot!
Its not correct to blame the “English Manager”. How many times have we seen this from the teram, as in start the game well, only to fold up towards the end?
What ever happened to Sven?
Maybe a little off point but richpenguin just put this up on Redrants. It’s a video about how shit Gerrard was against Estonia – I think it’s very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYHggzKlAi4
Firstly, whilst England are stilll a great footballing nation, they are not a nation of great footballers.
Yes we have some exceptionally good players, but not throughout the team.
The failure to see this results in Managers picking the best players we have (usually), and then playing them out of position.
Maclarens failure, same as many others is picking ‘names’, not players on form.
Robinson should have been dropped.
A left back should have been playing at left back.
Whilst I’m not his biggest fan, you cant argue with Crouch’s record for England. I’m also not Downings biggest fan, but of the 5 games he’s started, 4 have ended in comfortable victories.
He has also made some inexcusable decisions.
I mean picking Alan Smith as a forward instead of Jermain Defoe?
We need to play 11 players, in a formation that they are comnfortable with (4-4-2) and play players that play in the correct position.
Pick form players.
We are not going to qualify for Euro 2008, and it has nothing to do with a dodgy refereeing decision in Russia.
Its a failure to to beat Israel away, Macedonia at home and get a result in Croatia.
We need a manager with balls who is thick skinned enough to take the job without worrying about flack.
Brian Clough gets my vote… oh damn he’s dead, oh well, we’re buggered for the forseeable
It’s not necessarily mcclaren’s fault, although he could do with a bit more personality and man-management/motivational skills. The emphasis on strength and power, rather than improving the technical ability of our young footballers, is the reason why we will always lag behind in international football. English footballers on the whole lack flair, imagination and skill (J.Cole and Rooney exceptions), as well as a razor sharp first touch; instant ball control can buy a player an extra split second to assess his options and seek out a teammate to play the ball to, and at international level, this is crucial. A change in mentality is also needed; we have been perennial losers for god knows how long and need a born (and preferably English) winner to change our mindset…someone in the mould of Fergie, Keane or the ‘Special One’….
ok, it’s a cliche graven in stone that you can’t fire the whole squad but the coach, however, it doesnt make it stop being true. I can see the ’special one’ coming.
McClaren is uninspirational but I don’t necessarily think that makes him a bad manager.
I don’t think he has been tactically out-thought by Hiddink in the two matches, if anything I think he’s got the better of Guus.
The decision to stick with Paul Robinson looked like the right one – never ever should James play for England again and you can’t throw Carson in for his first cap now.
It was an untimely loss of form from a key player, as was Wayne Rooney’s loss of form throughout the entire qualifying period (in an Eng shirt).
I can think of many better options that McClaren, but I don’t think yesterday’s result was his fault.
Well its inevitable that McClaren will get fired at the end of qualifying, and rightly so. However while he lacked motivational skills and made bad decisions and there are better managers around, blaming the manager is more of a cover up, you didnt even see the game ahmed, England lost matches in the exact same way under Sven, Hoddle and Keegan and each time its the managers fault for “being defensive”. If the managers job was to control the ball for the players while theyre on the pitch and make them pass the ball in tight spaces then it would be a more valid point, this match it was about the players. That said our team should have got out this group easily regardless of the shortcomings i mentioned.
also not enough of our top players are playing/have played abroad (except Becks and the two Owens). if you look at top teams like france, holland, brazil, argentina, portugal etc. the vast majority of their top players play outside their domestic leagues, hence have more (tactical) experience.
My post from the other McClaren thread:
If anything, Joe Cole has been consistently better for club and country this year than most of the players you name. However, Joe Cole is better nearer the middle of the pitch where he sees the ball most, instead of being forced to play out wide left.
McClaren is relying on playing the “Good Old Boys†far too often. Gerrard has been shit this year for club and country and receives none of the blame. His appointment of vice captain may be one of the worst things to happen to Three Lions, and ever since he has filled in for Terry, he has failed to inspire the Three Lions side. He deserves to be benched for a match or two to get his head on straight, or at least to receive his fair share of criticism for once.
Paul Robinson deserves to be benched for a terrible streak of poor form, and it would serve him right to get his head on straight and just train for a time until he comes back better.
McClaren also needs to stop sticking to his 4-4-2 which has been shit. His lack of effort in deploying a holding midfielder have handicapped Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, two great offensive threats that have been forced to play conservatively from the middle of the pitch. Coupled with both of them showing poor form, it is easy to see why Three Lions struggle, yet McClaren somehow indures while receiving justified criticism, and the Good Old Boys languish on the pitch while they do not perform.
McClaren giving Gerrard the start because of his vice captainship results in terrible football, like so:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pYHggzKlAi4
[...] Taxi for McClaren? srExecute(); Related Items from Soccerlens [...]