Four minutes, it seems, is an eternity in the life of an international football manager. That is the amount of time it took for Steve McClaren’s England side to implode against Russia on Wednesday and leave poor old McClaren facing the media bullet.
Not long ago, when England beat Russia 3-0 at Wembley, the coach’s stock had never been higher. The recall of Emile Heskey was seen as a masterstroke and Gareth Barry’s poise on the left of midfield gave England a balanced look that has been beyond many of McClaren’s predecessors.
McClaren was probably looking forward to a month in some Alpine resort next summer when Wayne Rooney volleyed England ahead in Moscow on Wednesday but then along comes Roman Pavlyuchenko.
A 2-1 defeat means England now face the bleak prospect of failing to qualify for a major tournament for the first time since the 1994 World Cup.
But should fans be surprised? Glance beneath the Premier League hyperbole and it’s clear McClaren is not exactly blessed with world class players … apart from Rooney. Steven Gerrard seems to be living on past glories, the pedestrian Frank Lampard gets routinely booed by England fans and two of England’s substitute strikers on Wednesday can’t even get into their club sides.
Add to that some key injuries, a goalkeeper in Paul Robinson whose list of high-profile gaffs is lengthening on a weekly basis and a chronic lack of international-quality defensive cover and the outlook is a pretty grim. The truth is Guus Hiddink and Luiz Felipe Scolari, both held up as better choices than McClaren, would have trouble getting this current crop of England players to perform.
The truth is that a list of the current top 20 best performers in the Premier League would include only Rooney and possibly his Manchester United team mate Rio Ferdinand. Quite appropriate then that England’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 now rest on the shoulders of 11 foreigners. They seem incapable of living up to their own inflated reputations, after all.
Martyn Herman, London
England’s manager Steve McClaren leaves the pitch after losing to Russia in their Euro 2008 Group E qualifying soccer match at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, October 17, 2007. REUTERS/Darren Staples
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10 comments so far
england are finished they seem to forget that wearing the three lions is an honour which is why the likes of gareth barry are performing well, paul robinson week in week out slips up with everything, mistakes everywhere! david james has the highest clean sheet record but doesnt get in the squad! WAKE UP BEFORE ITS TOO LATE MCLAREN
- Posted by badgerVery well summed up by Martyn Herman. It is always said that the Premier league is the best football league in Europe. Yes, it is indeed. It has great quality. But one doesn’t have to look deep to notice that most of this quality comes from players who are from Africa, from mainland Europe and even from neighboring Wales but just a handful of em from England itself.
- Posted by Nachiket KelkarAnd this clearly shows in their national team’s performance.
Probably now Steve Mclaren too will be shown the door, if they fail to qualify for the European championships. But bring in any coach, unless the quality of players improves, things wil not change much.
Also there is no need for any kneejerk reaction after this loss at Russia. Anyways they can only sit and watch Russia play their last two games and hope Israel or Andorra beat em, which any one will agree is highly unlikely.
And even if that does happen, there’s no certainty England will win their last match.
So must say, better luck next time guys.
nachiket, who are u, you clearnly do not know what your talking about? england have a good youth system and a great batch of players, what they need to do is give players like defoe and carrick a chance get rid of gerrard lampard robinson the people who think the england shirt is there birth right, we need players with passion! russia is a hard place and hostile for any team to play. we were unlucky, we need to pick it up and indeed hope luck is on our side
- Posted by badgerto badget:
- Posted by Zulfikar ZiulqI fully agree englant has a very good youth ski system. I am with you 100%. I must say, though, you’re probably one of the very few who donno who NACHIKET is…
FYI, NACHIKET is one of the most versatile Detroit Spinners, my frient…
[...] Martyn Herman placed an interesting blog post on England left to play the blame game againHere’s a brief overviewEngland’s manager Steve McClaren leaves the pitch after losing to Russia in their Euro 2008 Group E qualifying soccer match at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, October 17, 2007. REUTERS/Darren Staples. [...]
- Posted by www.soccersecrets.info » England left to play the blame game againTo badger,
You talk about England’s “good” youth system.
Should one be surprised that one doesn’t see them on the field then.
You talk about Defoe and Carrick.
Carrick is a good player, I will agree and should get more first team games.
But Defoe, come on now don’t make me laugh. Forget England, he even struggles to get first team games for his club Spurs, who have now bought Darren Bent from Charlton paying a unbelieveable 16 million pounds.
He is another good young striker, but look at other strikers in Europe, the likes of Defoe, Bent et all are just average.
And that is the precise reason, most of the talked about players in the English leagues are from everywhere but England.
Theo Walcott has the potential to be a world class player, but there are very very few in England who can even catch up with him.
If you think that England has a good youth system, then why do you think the top club teams are ready to pay a premium to get players from the continent, Africa and Latin America?
If England’s young players are so good, then why does the management have to go back and knock the doors of the senior players like Sol Campbell and Emil Heskey ?
- Posted by Nachiket KelkarNachiket why do you think people like defoe are left in the dark because people have lost faith in the english youth system, now with regards to defoe he is a profound striker at the highest level how can u progress as a player when ur a sub, u need to give him a chance. he has exactly the same potential as walcott but wasnt as well publisised. walcott before the last world cup was yet to start a premiership game therefore allowing him to go to a world cup was insanity. They brush off english talent because we are over run with the ronaldinhos of the world who are great but showboating. that is what english team are looking for showboaters with extreme talent. if english leagues were to enforce rules with regards to how many non eu players were allowed our national team would benifit from it massivly. i would just like to see some changes in the inforstructure of the england setup, because it is a shambles u have to agree on that
- Posted by badgerp.s campbell and heskey are back in the squad due to there strong club performances, they are proving my point that people need to be proven at club level to be involved in the england squad they are representing the hopes of every england fan out there every time they wear that shirt. they should have to earn the right to wear the infamous 3lions and that shirt that we all love so much! we cant disagree on that
- Posted by badgerI totally agree with you Badger, that selecting Walcott for the worldcup even before he had a played a single match in the premier league was insanity. And to top it all, they took him and then didn’t give him a chance even in a single match.
They could have rather taken Daren Bent and then when Owen got injured, Bent could have been a much needed help. I still rate Bent as a average striker, but at least he offers a experienced choice up front when the usual suspects are out injured.
I still wonder, if it would help if the FA makes rules restricting the number of non English players a English football club can have. Having such a rule, yes we may see many more English players under the spotlight, but on the other hand, lack of competition could also kill the urge of the English men to fight for a place and thus improve their game to prove a point.
- Posted by Nachiket Kelkar[...] Martyn Herman on this blog and Ollie Irish at Who Ate All the Pies have stressed that the players should share the blame. But [...]
- Posted by Don’t blame the two Steves - Reuters Soccer Blog