What Football Manager 08 taught me about Steve McClaren and England
This website has been highly critical of Steve McClaren’s credentials to manage England – with that in mind, it’s interesting to take a look back at my weekend romp with FM 08 and look at what it takes to manage England.
The charges leveled against Steve McClaren (and against his predecessor, Sven Goran Eriksson), are as follows:
- Tactical naivety – especially when it comes to changing things during the course of a game
- Not picking the best Team but the best XI – Macca has done a bit better than Eriksson but as we’ll see, not much better
- Inability to motivate players
Let’s start with these (and lump England’s inability to use possession instead of wasting it with tactical ineptness).
Tactical Ineptitude
It’s surprising that Steve McClaren has not been able to get England working properly on the basics – keeping the ball, moving forward with it, attacking as a unit, discipline in defence, etc etc. The main gripe has been that the talent coming through the ranks in England is not good enough, but quite honestly even crap players can be adequate if they’re given the right training.
England’s performances, at times, are woefully inadequate. Part of that is mental and another part is team selection – I’ll tackle both in a bit – but sometimes simple tactics can mean the difference between winning 2-0 and losing 1-2 in Moscow.
England’s performances against Macedonia and Israel away were precursors to how England played against an opponent who was comfortable on the pitch and ready for a fight. Against settled teams, England’s nervousness shines through. While it was embarrassing to see England lose 0-2 to Croatia (a 1-1 or 0-1 result barring that freak own-goal), they probably played better that day than England have against Macedonia or Israel away from home.
Joe Cole – misused. Wayne Rooney – misused. Emile Heskey – falsely congratulated for Russia’s mistakes (they didn’t repeat them in Moscow, mind you – Hiddink learns). Paul Robinson – his inability to learn is fascinating and sad at the same time (he’s a decent keeper though, just shot of confidence). Steven Gerrard – needs to provide results instead of efforts. Michael Carrick – misused and to an extent, not first-choice in any case for England. Barry – again, lauded for his performance in easy games, but fundamentally not used right against Russia.
The list goes on. The one thing FM 08 drills home time and time again is that each situation demands different players and different tactics. England are strong at home against average opponents but woeful away from home against below-average opponents. The problem lands squarely at the feet of Macca.
At the start of England management career, I sympathised with Macca, thinking that it was difficult to arrive at the right tactics and that perhaps, England just weren’t good enough. But I’m a beginner – Macca has learned from one of the best (Sir Alex Ferguson) and has been in management for a long time now. He’s had far more time to hone his management skills. And yet the words that sting the most are Hiddink’s tongue-in-cheek comment that England were tactically naive, because we know it’s true.
The substitutions at Moscow were damning – Downing and Lampard are workhorses, not impact players. Joe Cole, on the other hand, is an impact player. Hell, Theo Walcott is an impact player (for those who remember World Cup 2006). Why bring Downing on for Cole when you could have started with Downing, worn down the defenders with his width and pace and then brought on Cole to cut and weave inside?
Poor Team Selection
When I was losing my early matches in FM 08, the urge to bring on Frank Lampard for Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen for Dean Ashton (and indeed, Joe Cole for Stewart Downing) was overwhelming. I sympathise with Eriksson and Macca when they repeatedly pick players who clearly do not fit into the system. Michael Owen, for example, is an excellent player and fully capable of playing together with Wayne Rooney, but to use the two properly you need specific tactics, which change immediately if Rooney or Owen are paired with Crouch / Ashton / Bent.
Within England’s tactically naive structure, pairing Rooney and Owen is a wild throw of the dice. It’s easier to follow the big man – little man strategy for Macca because it requires less fine-tuning.
For Lampard – the discussions on how Lamps / Gerrard cannot play in the same central midfield have been done to death, so no repeats here.
For Joe Cole – explain to me the purpose of playing an attacking midfielder on left wing who refuses to play in his position and therefore forces his left back (the admirable Ashley Cole) to do the work of two men?
Why do England coaches pick center-backs for full-back positions? Carragher ended his career because of this (a stupid move) and at any rate, Lescott, despite his history as playing as a left-back, is NOT a Micah Richards on the wings. With Leighton Baines doing so good for Everton, why not pick him? A genuine left-back matched with a genuine left-winger (Downing, not Cole) could have made a world of difference. As it were, England’s left flank was weak as always and Hiddink exploited it with ease.
England have no defensive midfielders apart from Carrick and Hargreaves, it seems. Reo-Coker is what, too black to play with Gerrard? Sissoko isn’t, so there must be a different reason, but the fact that I had to say this signifies something deeper – where are the players England needs?
To be honest, England are NOT that good as they lead themselves to believe. Hargreaves and Carrick are not better than Gattuso, not today and not in any fantasy world that you or I live in. And yet those two are the best defensive midfielders we have, so the question then is, what does Steve McClaren do? Does he thrust someone unknown into the mix or go with the tried and trusted, as Eriksson did with Lampard and Macca did with Barry?
Playing FM 08, I realise that England aren’t that good. I also realised that the temptation to go with experience is great, and while the risk of defeat in my case was balanced by saved games, Macca has no such fall-back options.
England’s failures then can be attributed directly to Steve McClaren being caught dead in the proverbial on-coming headlights and freezing. He’s afraid to take risks and make mistakes, so he’s going (more or less) with what is safe and thanks to his tactical naivety, England are suffering.
But remember, England are not as good as we think, and Macca is under tremendous amounts of pressure. For this alone I respect him more than when I did last week, before England had lost to Russia.
Man Management Skills
My assistant manager in FM 08 who takes charge of team talks cites ‘fans’ as a never-failing motivator for players. It’s useful, perhaps, but I wonder what it takes for someone to motivate his players? SAF does it, Wenger does it, Mourinho did it, and Rafa does it for big occasions.
A big chunk of football management is about extracting 100% from the players available to you. That, combined with tactical aptitude allowed Mourinho to win the Champions League with Porto. That same combination allowed Hiddink to beat England in Moscow (with below-average players).
McClaren – from his days at Middlesbrough and his time with England – is not getting the best out of his players. You need a ball-buster, someone the players look up and respect. I’m not going out on a limb here when I say that Martin O’Neill would command more respect than Steve McClaren and while Steve Coppell probably wouldn’t, he’d earn it in the dressing room. Can Macca? I’m sure they ‘respect’ him, but there’s a difference between how players respect Fergie and Mourinho and how they respect Macca.
To sum it up, FM 08 is a kickass game 
And England’s problems can be summed up like this:
- Not enough quality talent in England
- Steve McClaren is tactically average, risk-averse and an average man-manager
Questions?
Ahmed, I would not say that England is not good enough and I would not put the blame entirely on Macca. It is a combination of the two. Any Italian manager would crave to have the quality that Engalnd has (especially in defence) because he knows that he can get the best out of individuals rather than a team (like Capello last season – it was indivdual efforts which went a long way towards the title, not the team spirit you usualy find in Arsenal or Man Utd dressing rooms). As far as individual quality goes this is my view on England:
Rio + Terry (yes, I know he is not that good) – better than just about any other international defence duo.
Gerrard – in my opinion best central midfielder around (bar the performances this season)
Rooney – no comment
Owen – when I was young I had nighmares about Merlin who would turn me into a frog, young defenders have nightmares about Owen…
Beckham – no matter what people say, where he plays or how injured he is the fact is that he has made himself one of the best right midfielders (note: not wingers like Ronaldo or Giggs) of his generation.
A. Cole – splendid; if you doubt this just remebmer his performance vs Portugal at Euro 2004 or that save in the game against Ecuador in Germany. The sole player in the England squad who manages to take his club form to international level.
So the quality is there, albeit superficial.
Macca: you pretty much said it but I want to add that it could be the players’ lack of thirst for success which hinders what might be a perfectly funtional tactic, rather than his poor decision making (which still plays a major factor). England need a new prodigy. Is it going to be Walcott?
At the moment the new prodigy is Micah Richards, and because of him England have a secure back four.
But Becks is injured or too slow, and that leaves only Gerrard in midfield. What about the other 3 slots?
If Macca cannot use Owen and Rooney, then there’s no obvious benefit for both of them playing together, is there?
Ahmed, I don’t consider “being slow” as a disadvantage. we all know that Italian league is slow as compared to its English counterpart. But Italian team won the World Cup (everybody in Italian team was picked from within the Italian league, no need to remind). Patrick Vieira has always been “slow” but yet one of the best midfielder in the world. So, when picking the midfielder, instead of solely considering slowness, you should consider his composure, his play-making abilities, his ability to read the game, and his ability to sense the opportunity before its arrival.
After a possibly un-matched record of success in club football, Sven-Goran lead England to top qualifying place in all three international tournaments, lost ONLY five competitive matches during his five and a half years in office and took England to FIFA No.4 world ranking during World Cup2006. Since his enforced decision to quit, virtually the same squad look like failing to even scrape in to Euro 2008.
Other countries sporting press acclaim S-G E as “the world’s (and England’s) greatest coach manager” and TheFA rank him as England’s second most successful after Sir Alf Ramsey (although aside from a very “lucky” 1966 W-Cup tournament, even the great Sir Alf can’t match Svennis’ statistics).
It may be time to re-apraise the Sven/Becks years as a “Golden era” for English football among decades of genuine failure and “underachievement” that was mainly caused by a “death wish” from the media and some very “unusual” ref’s decisions that knocked England out of tournaments they could very easily have otherwise won????
It appears that the world’s other top quality coach managers spurned the “poisoned chalice” England job after the xenophobic and shameful treatment that rewarded Sven’s dedication and achievement, so it looks like we may be stuck with “understudys” or chancers for a while and wave good bye to any prospects of future success in W-Cup 2010 as well as any slim chance of redemption in 2008?
c’mon ahmed, i can understand carrick but whats with the hargreaves hate?
just wondering, in fifa FOOTBALL 08(not manager) can you coach a national side?
No hargreaves hate – I love Carrick more than Hargo, btw, it’s just that they’re not as good as the world’s finest midfield duo.
Dunno about Fifa
It is a pity that Mourinho does not want the England job, he could have instilled the much needed tactical discipline into the team.
McClaren is not the right candidate for the job. I always believe that you need to have moderate success in club management first before you take on the role of a national coach.
I know this has got nothing to do with England, but seeing that we’re on the midfield topic, give it a season or 2 and you’ll see that the world’s finest midfield duo will be Hargo/Anderson
I think Mourinho would have been perfect for England. Still a bit defensive, but at least they would have appeared in major tournaments (and stand 80% chance of winning them).
Ahmed, Beckham should still be there even if he is too slow and the other two spots can be occupied with (some) success by Hargreaves and Cole or, with less success, by Lampard and Downing. Either way the four previously mentioned are better than most players (outside the England squad) in the group England has just played in.
The point in playing Rooney with Owen is that: Rooney can make stuff happen out of the blue (at leat that is what he was doing in previous seasons) and Owen is England’s bling bling!! as long as someone plays balls in his general direction. The players are not being used to their potential and that is the problem.
John, every England fan knows it: doesnt matter who is the manager of England, as long as he does not win WCs and Euro Cups he will never be the *right candidate*. In Erikkson comes back and wins something all of a sudden he will become a national hero. We just love the media, don’t we?
ahmed, carricks swag! i agree with carl about the hargo andy connection becomin the best in the world.
Bookies laughing all the way to the bank!
Capello = Top Notch Manager.
I’d say the problem with England is that you can’t reboot the game if you lose the qualifier.
fdsa – lmao, true, so true.
who eva wrote the first article obviously has never played football and doesnt know his arse frm his elbow, england not enough quality talent behave fella!!!!!!
I wouldn’t say quality is the problem. After all we do have several world class players such as Rooney, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Terry, Joe Cole, and Owen.
The problem is we are tactically limited…partly due to the coach, but also the players.
But also we lack creativity as a team which makes it hard for us to break open defences. Rooney and Joe Cole are the only creative players we have. Joe Cole is wasted on the wings while Rooney does not get enough service.
As a result we end up trying to out-muscle the other team and hit hopeful long balls into the box, giving away possession too easily etc.
Mourinho would be ideal because he can make limited players gel into a world beating team. Chelsea were successful even though their system was stone-age compared to the fluid attacking football of Man U and Arsenal, which sadly England just don’t have the players to pull off.
got fm 08 yesterday.. lost my first five matches, wtf
[...] http://soccerlens.com/what-football-manager-08-taught-me-about-steve-mcclaren-and-england/3685/ – As a recovering Football Manager addict myself, comparing Steve McClaren’s attempt at being England manager to the mighty Football Manager 2008 game highlights the fact you should play the players that play best as a “team” rather than neceassarily playing your “best players”. [...]
You lost me when you suggested McClaren should have started Downing against Russia – I mean what an absolute waste of space. We’d have been 4 down by the time Joe Cole came on! Just because his stats are high on footy manager doesn’t mean he’s good in the real world!
to be honest mistakes were made a long time before mcclaren he just got shown the tail of it(or so i hope its the tail) the fact is the english mentality to youngsters is to be strong and powerful, but the fact is a lot of good young technical players are not making it because of this simple thought, you think of youngsters like shaun w phillips, who was rejected by loads of clubs because he was too small, completely ignoring any talent he had, luckily he was a fighter so managed to make it through. We need to get our youngsters playing in small pitches with small goals this will show the players who are good technically rather than just physically and we might start to see some youngster who can take the ball past an opponent and players who want the ball. also we need to get away from the whole 4-4-2 thing this for me is stopping us progress as a national team because its too flat and predictable, i agree with the fact that joe cole isn’t a left winger ashley young would have been the best if you was going with a left winger as he can go inside or outside and has immense pace something that joe cole lacks, i’m not sayin take joe out all im saying is move him inside to play a rooney role when rooneys injured as seems to be occuring alot.
It’s interesting that this topic is still receiving comments after England crashed out of Euro2008 and McClaren has been sacked?
Svennis had the “audacity” to be less charismatic and available to the media while “disastrously” losing (being robbed of?) fewer than one competitive game a year during his tenure and so easily cruising to top qualifying places in EVERY tournament.
I’m not sure which of these “sins” caused the media to so effectively drive him out of office with the subsequent (and very real!) catastrophic results for our ambitions next summer and I’m sure that a trophy or two (that better luck and less biased reffereeing could have surely provided?) would have shielded him from much of the personal attack and false hyperbole that resulted in stiff out of court settlements for those who made them (?), but it’s good to see the ever fickle press now giving Sven some of the credit he so clearly deserved…, although it’s obviously too little and too late for England’s recent and possibly future fortunes?
They say if you get the right general, the army will win the war but I don’t see a queue forming of any coach managers approaching Sven’s class for “football’s top job” after the way Sven was “rewarded”, so it looks like our prospects for the campaign in World Cup 2010 are as dubious as Euro 2008 has turned out to be, even though Sven’s replacement had the same “golden generation” (??) at his command…
I hope that TheFA are ready to “splash the cash” as surely no sane top coach manager would now take up the “poisoned chalice” of the England national job for any other reason?
I hope I’m wrong but in the mean time, any one got any ideas how to fill the time during the summer of 2008? (and possibly 2010?????)
head to austria and party with the fans…
Thanks for the suggestion Ahmed. See you in Vienna, and if I don’t recognise you, I guarantee you will recognise me my friend.
http://www.myspace.com/svenalike
England do not have world class players, in fact the majority of their players are over-rated. You know this is a fact as none of their players play overseas, only in england. The only people who think highly of english players are the english themselves. I would love to see them play mexico who are somehow ranked below them.
I am beginning to think that TheFA should not be receiving quite so much of the critisism for so disasterously “selecting” McClaren as Sven’s successor?
It was rumoured that NO world class coach/manager was interested in the England job around the time Sven was driven to quit by xenophobic elements within the British media and it appeared that McClaren was engaged “by default” as the least worst option then available and/or willing to put his head in the same noose?
This rumour is now further reinforced by TheFA being snubbed by a succession of the world’s top rank candidates even though they have apparently raised the ante to £6,000,000 a year remuneration.
It appears that (even in the greed driven business world of football?) many leading football coaches may consider that there’s more to life than money?
Many England fan organisations tried to raise support to boycott those newspapers they considered responsible for their “creative” hype in systematically attacking Sven’s batchelor (private) life style, and thereby making a major contribution to wrecking England’s football prospects. Maybe those patriotic fans were on the right track?
When (if?) another international coach is obtained (who is hopefully approaching Sven’s calibre), I hope that he has the sense to live like a Monk and guarantee to win EVERY match and the World Cup in 2010, because Sven’s un-equaled statistics and the way he was “rewarded”, prove that NOTHING less will satisfy some within the media….?
I do not believe that England does not have the quality to go for glory, at least not in FM08. I strongly believes it has all to do with finding ‘The Tactic’ for the team. For example, I recently started to manage England in FM08 and they are flying high when incorporated into the tactic that I have desgined. Up to now, 8 games in, I have managed to won all matches and score at least 3 goals per match (including 4-0 over Germany in my first game). As with many successfull inventions, I have gone thru a lot of trial & errors before arriving to this ‘Tactic’. With all the other tactics that I’d tried with England, they are just performing on an average level before discovering the right Tactics. Hence, I strongly believe it’s a matter of finding the “Right Tactic”, then follow by putting the right players in the right place…. at least when speaking in FM08 terms.
ive just also started to manage England in FM 08 and ive found out that tactics do not matter so much, we have the players good enough to win a championship. I played standard 4-4-2, with full backs Cole and Richards pushing up at every opportunity and a diamond midfield with hargreaves/carrick/barry as the mainstay at the base, and either lamps/gerrard at the apex (NOT BOTH – note how this solves the problem of having to play them in the same midfield). Result: I won every single match I played with England, culminating in a 3-1 victory over Spain in the Euro 2008 Final (beating the likes of France, Portugal and Italy en route)!
we need more fresh blood in the England setup, the likes of Agbonlahor, Ashley Young and Aaron Lennon to inject pace and freshness, as well as Nedum Onuoha, Ben Foster, Joe Hart, etc. Its also worth taking a look at Nathan Porritt (thanks to the countless hours I’ve spent playing FM08 :$), an explosive 17 year old left winger in the mould of Stewart Downing (he even plays for Boro too!)….
manutd fan n fm playa…. worst combination in the world…
n lamps is not a workhorse, just an overated player benefitting from better teamates( essein, cole.etc..)
difference is that there is absoloutly no flair or an creative imput to the coaching and playing staff in England.
joe cole maybe but he has no pace to get away from his opponent like ronaldo messi etc.
this forces him to lose his postion and forces ashley cole to adapt to marking 2 players which then brings the ‘great’ steven gerrard into the game as he will always get in the way.
england are overated
rooney’s best when hes not playing
seriously, has no stength or pace, proved it when he played upfront on his own in germany.
owens lost it , no secure LM or front two.
hopefully cappelo will change it
for me there is loads of talent coming threw england look at the england u21s team 2 best in eroup under 16 won the brtish cup for 7 years runing. we have the talent there its just people think omg look how meany english players are in the top four but there isnt only 4 clubs which have great players. u need to see and look around to find the talent because there are players licke theo wallcot and bantly all over englands leauge clubs u just need to stop watching tv and look for ur self!!!
DearSir,i am ayoung man of 17 years of age a footballer
in ashton football club in Ghana where ,i am a great midfielder who plays a position of 6 and ihave completed my senior high school and there is financial facing i and my relatives here so i need a team of under 17 and also a manager who will help me. Please,i just need you to help .