Friday, March 30, 2007

McClaren ~ sick as a parrot?

England boo boys keep McClaren under pressure
Steve McClaren remains under pressure despite England ending their five-match winless run with a 3-0 victory over Andorra in their Euro 2008 Group E qualifier in Barcelona.
McClaren and his men were subjected to sustained abuse from their own fans at the Olympic Stadium and the boss stormed out of a post-match press conference after just two questions.
During a lacklustre first half the vast majority of England's 12,000 fans joined in choruses of 'You'll be sacked in the morning' and 'What a load of rubbish' during the tepid, goalless opening period.
And even after Steven Gerrard's second-half double was followed up by substitute David Nugent's debut goal right at the death, the attacks continued, 'Still want McClaren out' was the pay-off line.
But McClaren hailed the 'guts and character' of his players against a team ranked 163rd in the world, boasting just one single full-time player, before cutting short the news conference.
The under-fire England boss said: "I said at half-time they had to show real guts and character to come through this. They did that. Each and everyone of them. I am proud of the players. It was a very difficult situation for them."
He continued: "There is no concern for me. Nothing concerns me about what people write or say. What matters is what is on the inside. There is a great determination to prove people wrong and a few of those players have probably grown up tonight."
With Frank Lampard being ruled out of England's latest Group E qualifier by a wrist injury, Gerrard was switched back to the centre from the right-sided position in which he has been deployed since McClaren succeeded Sven-Goran Eriksson.
And after the restart the inspirational Liverpool midfielder grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, breaking the deadlock eight minutes after the interval with a fine volley before charging onto Defoe's return pass to double England's lead on 76 minutes.
Gerrard's role allowed Aaron Lennon to start on the right, where he too looked far more effective than he did in Israel at the weekend.
The question for McClaren now is whether to bring Lampard back for the next qualifier in Estonia on June 6, where a win would put England back in the hunt for a qualifying berth.
The former England boss added: "We have won the game and we move on. That puts us in a better position in the group. We have to make sure we beat Estonia in June. Then we are on the run-in. It is down to us. It is still in our hands."

1 comment:

spikyprince said...

mclaren should never have been given the job as england coach. he just isnt up to the job and hes proving it every time they walk onto a pitch.as a second coach i think he was good at his job but not a the coach. for all his personal mishaps sven actully did did get some good results and his match stats were really good. its time a proper manager was brought in. what about fergie?. the amount he would get paid would surly give him something to think about and what a record. and its not down to a lack of talent in england if you put together a world 11 you would have to include at least rooney,gerrard,terry and theo walcott in the squad. england seem to have lost a certain amount of confidence since becks got dropped,which was a huge mistake. after all he is still at the top of his game and will be for another 3-4 years. at times becks was the england team and there is still no-one better in the world at free kicks. england will be lucky to qualify for euro 2008 at the rate they are going. the group shouldn't really cause any problems for them and we should have been able to play a 2nd or 3rd reserve team against andorra and won by a good margin.