So Is McClaren.....

The Joker in disguise?

Well, there are more. Just not football related but if you guys persuade enough maybe I'll put them on. Heh!

*Latest - McClaren Axed

The English FA have decided to sack Steve McClaren after an abysmal Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Decision was made after an emergency meeting between the FA executives and it is reported that McClaren will get a massive payout of 2.5million GBP.

Despite his insistence on staying on the job, the FA clearly have no more patience as they saw the Euro qualifiers turned out to be a national catastrophe. McClaren is now officially the shortest serving manager of the English national team.


Insights: How the meeting went

Barwick: Morning lads, so are we sacking that grinning ginge?
The Rest: Yes, boss.
Barwick: Alright, meeting over.


Right from the start, I've never believed that McClaren is the one to take England to the next level. I mentioned that it's no point killing the weed without exterminating the root. They sacked Sven but kept his assistant (which is him) on and appointed him the head coach.

Hindsight is always a blessing and we can all talk about his shortcomings and mistakes he made. Ultimately he'll go down into England's annals of shame, the one who saw their fall from grace.

Quote Of The Week...Never Mind! Quote Of The Year!

"Someone who has watched a lot of international football called me and said it [England's display in Israel] was as good a display of football as they had seen over the entire weekend."

Reporter 1: Good lord...

Reporter 2: Oh my....

"People must produce. They must perform. They know that"

Perhaps, it's a line on his soon to be coming, resignation letter!

Maybe 2.5 Million Is Worth It

It's like a nightmare that unfolds as time goes by. When it seemed to have hit rock bottom, it seemed that there's never a bottom to go by.

It just goes down and down.

4 games without a goal consecutively including matches against mighty Israel and Macedonia paints a dark portray of McClaren's reign. But that's beside the point.

Just imagine England NOT qualifying for Euro 2008.

Sounds like the wedding without the wedding cake. Or maybe to people like us who watches England because we're used to it, it's like the bride is missing.

Qualification in the group is not an exactly easy thing but it doesn't mean they should take the old cliche of 'there is no easy games at international level', so literally. Although Croatia and Russia proves to be formidable opponents for the Three Lions, but one would expect the likes of Lampard and Rooney to carry them through.

But it seemed that now, it's these players who are making a mess of things.

It doesn't surprise me to read about Wayne Rooney doing a 'Fergie' when he threw an almighty tantrum in the dressing room after the defeat....oh draw at Tel Aviv and not knowing that all the abuse he thrown at Bolton defender, Tal Ben Haim, could be heard.

It was over McClaren's comment on Rooney, for not delivering the goods. The burden of scoring goals lies on the very shoulder of Rooney. Bullish and well built he might be. But he might be too young to take over the mantle from previous masters like Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.

And this boy's temperament is questionable. He'll crack under pressure and I think he didn't handle Ben Haim's 'vendetta' against him well at all.

But is McClaren right to pin point him?

He's half right. You have to look back 3 years prior before you see Rooney's name on the England score sheet. Yes, back in Euro 2004, which seemed like ages ago but it's true. And that sort of goal scoring record from a boy extolled to be the hope of England? Just embarrassing.

But why is McClaren only picking on the poor lad? Yes, his record is poor but is it really ONLY him who didn't show any effort at all?

That's something deplorable from the man himself. Is he really deluded, myopic or just like everyone, finding a scapegoat? I can't tell but it might just be a mix of everything.

Rooney, meanwhile, showed us that youths nowadays really have some problem when dealing with criticisms. I'm not to be discounted from that group of people as we grow up having everything nicely packed for us, placed in front of us and spoon fed to everything we need.

When we face trials and difficulties, we either wither and die or we avoid it totally. We aren't able to take the fact well and when things doesn't go our way, we whine and throw toys out of the pram.

It's being really harsh on Rooney's part as he was pin pointed out as the sole scapegoat for a soul-less performance and with temperament like him, it's easy to see why he exploded. But underneath perhaps is the key to the problems.

When going gets tough for McClaren, it's only going to be even tougher. Even reports claim the FA just needs 2.5 Million to sack the man and just by the look of things, the amount could be accounted for in perhaps even before England plays Andorra.

Transforming England into Middlesbore Mark 2 isn't the solution and fitting round pegs into square holes won't help. But when there are square pegs for the holes and he doesn't pick them, then he's to hold a certain responsibility.

Players too, should be ashame of themselves for all their big talks and small actions. Prior to every England game, you'll never fail to see a player coming out to rally the troops. The more you see it, the more you go 'ah, whatever'.

Talking is one thing. Doing it is another. Want to make the fans believe? Then SHOW it.

Stop Asking For Opinions

Managers are appointed to manage and organise a group a players. But for England's case, it's the other way round.

England manager, Steve McClaren will reportedly hold a 'crisis meeting' with the England senior players. And the point being, to ask for opinions from the 5 'senior players' including captain, John Terry and vice captain, Steven Gerrard.

This is something that I've never heard of. A manager asking the players who they want the team to play. Well, then you could very well pick the Tom, Dicks and Harrys off the street for the England job since all you need to do is to listen to players like Lampard go on about how the team should be build around him or Rio on how be the first to celebrate the goal with his team mate although he should be in the other part of the pitch.

Questioning McClaren's decision to consult the senior players is one thing. But you've got to wonder how much power these players hold in the national team. Player power comes to mind and perhaps, some of the players are never called up despite their form down to the fact that these senior players don't recommend them to be in the manager.

Now, who's the boss?

National team players should be called up base on merits and current form. The manager will have to pick the best players and organise them to play in a system that he sees fit. I don't think a manager should go around asking players for advice as to how he should play them, the tactics and systems or perhaps even who to call up for the national team.

It might be a reason why the English team underachieved throughout the years. There isn't someone there to make sure he's the boss and he picks the team. Now it seemed like the team is full of big time charlies and giving suggestions to the boss which might be a decision that gives him the advantage.

Next point is, why are there even this band of 5 whom are branded as 'senior players'? We know they are the core of the team. But does that send out a wrong signal to them that they're undroppable or in Mourinho's term, 'Untouchables'?

Once again, you have to question whether the national team is picked base on performance or purely on their reputation.

Appointed a manager, be a manager. Pick the players and system and organise them to play them the way you want them to. The internal politics makes this sort of 'senior players' talk useless. If England wants to move on, the player power have to go. Sort it out.

Rage Against The McClown

"I believe in these players and I believe in my ability to do the job and get us qualified," says Steve McClaren.




Of course, not many people thinks so. Scan through ALL the major newspaper in England this couple of days and you could sense that not everyone is completely positive about him. There are photoshopped pictures of him on some newspaper even.

Just like the campaign against Cristiano Ronaldo during the World Cup, the English came out with another brilliant site like THIS.

Poor Spain Defeat Clueless England

Macca Under Intense Pressure

Friendly

England 0 - 1 Spain

ESP - Iniesta

Although it was only a friendly, it has to be one of the more dire and abject performance by the Three Lions in recent times. Now England have gone 4 games without a win and England fans should be worried as to whether the team is really moving in the right direction or are they falling further behind.

Impact wise, it is not as devastating as the defeat at Croatia when Paul Robinson decides to put up a truly dreadful performance but you've got to wonder what lies ahead for McClaren and his team. Because for me, I see no improvement whatsoever. And don't go on about evolution or revolution because they are PR stunts and are said to appease the fans.

Performance wise, dreadful, insipid and absolutely woeful. Apart from the first 5 minutes when England turned up the gear and played at their own pace and momentum (which is at 100km/h), they just looked out of sort, confused and lost.

We must admit that the Spain team last night was not the best as well. They struggled to cope with the pace of Dyer and S-Wright Phillips at times but I think the England players must be in awe of the way Spain controlled the possession and rhythm of the game.

Xavi in the middle was the one pulling the strings. He don't seemed to appear in your TV screen as much as Lampard or Gerrard but did an awful lot more than the whole of England's XI added up together. Sums it up pretty much.

David Villa then decides to conjure up brilliant cross which was well defended by Rio Ferdinand. Unfortunately, the ball fell to the worst possible candidate in England's eye. Andres Iniesta of Barcelona fired into the top corner. Everyone stood still, no one there to close him down.

You'll expect some sort of response from the England team, who are playing their last game at Old Trafford before moving into their new home at Wembley. But that was about it. It was just like what happen when you play Football Manager when the opponent scores and then there was absolutely no reply from your team for the next 40-50 minutes.

Now let's put the performance aside. I think McClaren should have a reality check. Because either he doesn't watch football, doesn't have the tactical nous or the FA just think he's a stop gap for someone bigger, like Scolari or Hiddink (??).

Firstly, on the case of Paul Robinson. We've been harping for months on how dire and inept this goalkeeper has been since his move to Spurs. He seemed to gain an extra stone or two and to be honest, in all the Spurs match I've watched, any shots on Robbo's goal turned out to be a goal. Who can forget his air-kick? To sum it up, his form this season has been absolutely awful.


So, Macca tried out Ben Forster in goal and he managed to put up a decent performance. But the key here would be the pre-match talk where McClaren mentioned 'Robinson's position is not threatened'. Are you crazy? Which manager would tell their player that their position is safe no matter how shit you play? So now Robbo must be thinking 'aye I can continue to eat my pies and till get the numer 1 jersey every year'. Reality check one. Fail.

Regarding Gareth Barry, the most under-rated player in the Premiership by far. With Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge withdrawn from the squad due to injury, you would expect the Villa captain to be slotted into the left back position with ease. His performance for Villa have been consistent in recent years and deserve it all.

Overlooked by Sven, now he has his chance. But McClaren once again, came up with one of the most bizarre decision I've seen. Putting Phil Neville in the left back slot. Is this Philip the one that cost England a penalty in the Euro 2000 game against Romania? In the left back slot?

His reason was: 'I want players to play in the position that they play for their respective clubs'. Gareth Barry have been playing as a left winger for majority of the season at Villa, fair enough. Hang on, is Phil Neville a left back for Everton then? No? I thought I saw him playing in midfield against Liverpool and perhaps a right back a few weeks back. So everything, backfires. Sorry, your reason is not a reason but an excuse.

Looking at the first eleven of the England team, the only left footed player on the field is none other than, the goalkeeper. How much of a joke is that? I could find more left footed players than England do!

Tactics wise, I'm no genius, but I see no movement or plan on the pitch. They're so 'flexible' that everyone seemed to get into each others way. You could argue that England are missing a few key players and it's just a friendly. But you've got to wonder where England are heading with this man.

Problems are not on the surface. It's a deep problem down to the youth system. He mentioned about England having to play their own style rather than copying the other team's. So what now, is England's style? I think even Mr. McClaren have a problem answering that.

Nightmare in Zagreb; Macca Fell For Bilic Trickery

Euro 2008 Qualifier

Croatia 2 - 0 England

“Boring, boring, England”, Cries the national press and fans alike. But this match provided something that’s funnier than the Borat advertisement board over in Zagreb. Paul Robinson, England’s number one goalkeeper, committed an unforgivable sin as England crashed to a not very surprising, 2-0 defeat to Croatia. This is the first defeat for England under Steve McClaren’s regime.

One would suspect that Croatian coach, Slaven Bilic has set a trap which McClaren himself fell for it. He dared England to play a 3-5-2 formation and Macca, caring more about his personal pride, duly sent out England with the 3-5-2 formation which caused more harm than remedy.

To be honest, England’s only bright spark in recent times have to be their defence which is well marshaled by John Terry. But tonight, the formation which required 3 central defenders proved to be the stumbling block and a very average English side were made to look like a third world nation playing.

Jamie Carragher, who was drafted in to play on the left of the back three, looked confused as to where he should position himself , but looked the more solid of the three. Rio Ferdinand’s confidence on the ball seemed to be his downfall as he tried to dwell on the ball and was nearly punished by the zealous Croats.

England lacked any sort of idea, coordination and teamwork, from start to end. Captain John Terry, whom has said he’ll be giving a rousing speech before the game, seemed to have failed to inspire anyone including himself. Frank Lampard, whom before the game spoke of his selfishness and self-centeredness, was largely ineffective or to be fair, anonymous.

His two holding players behind him looked all at sea and were unable to provide any form of ammunition for the front or protection to the back. Parker looked a little out of depth due to his inexperience while the way Carrick played must have Sir Alex worried with the obscene amount of money spent on him. The supposed ‘great passer of the ball’ struggled to even string short passes and I don’t need to go into the long ball part, do I?

The strike force of Crouch and Rooney were again starved off from any supply from the so called playmaker in Lampard who was seen eating pies rather than getting stucked in and work for the team. Rooney did have a chance when he was put through by Crouch, but his poor form continued as he blasted the ball over the bar. Crouch was marked out of the game.

Gary Neville and Ashley Cole, who were the two players who were thought to be providing the widths were more occupied trying to defend rather than putting in crosses.

After 84 caps, the older of the Neville brothers failed to put the ball in the net until tonight, but unfortunately, the wrong side. But who can blame him for passing a seemingly harmless backpass to Paul Robinson, who took a huge swipe at the ball, but the ball bounced past him, leaving him red faced. Is it any wonder that McClaren looked just as embarrassed as his ‘keeper. As a top level goalkeeper playing for your nation, it’s just unacceptable to make this sort of mistake and he must have felt David James breathing down his neck already.

It was a clueless, inept and laughable performance from England. Who would’ve thought they’ll provide us with such entertainment, although the England fans will definitely not be amused by that. The 3-5-2 formation that went terribly wrong 6 years ago came back to haunt England once again and Macca will surely now take this time to work on a set formation for England rather than tinkering with the formation.

The players looked like they’re never properly briefed on their roles and the pre-match preparation will surely come under scrutiny from the press. Did McClaren gave the England team appropriate and adequate preparation before the game? Because judging by the performance, it seemed like they were truly not ready.

The ‘golden generation’ and ‘world beater’ tags surely will now be taken away from this bunch for now. They’re clearly not up to it and Steve McClaren has a huge problem ahead of him. The disjointedness of the squad will surely be a cause of concern as well as getting the best out of these bunch of players whom earns mega bucks that everyone could only dream of. But players earning that sort of money putting up this sort of performance? Shameful.

For Croatia, their performance was commedable as they taught England a lesson in football. Their fans were brilliant for the night as they spurred them on. They deserved all three points with that sort of performance.

Boring, Boring, En-grrrrr-land...

England 0 - 0 FYR Macedonia

The picture that sums up England's night. Stevie G, hand on his back of his head:


Hands up if you're one of those neutrals that watched the game and then dozed off. After so many years of watching football, this is one of the VERY few games that made me goes 'fishing'. It was a lame and pathetic performance from a country blessed with such abundance of talents. Again, it seemed like it's 11 individuals out there instead of a team of English players. So what went wrong? I'll try my very best to give you insights into this England 'team'.


1) Lack Of Width

Stewart Downing on the left and Steven Gerrard on the right. Ones a 'one season wonder' who struggles to get past a man and the other not even a winger. Such a sad state of affair that they couldn't even field two proper wingers who can get past man and put in decent crosses. It makes you wonder what would've happened if Beckham is still in the team.

Downing has to be one of those players whom you have totally no idea why they're in the squad, but made it anyway. Perhaps because he used to play under Macca at Boro? I would think so. There's such a player named Gareth Barry who has been consistantly good this season, putting in excellent crosses and got overlooked. Why? Because he's not playing in a big club?

Steven Gerrard on the other hand still doesn't looked disciplined enough to play on the wide right. Brings me to my next point:


2) Gerrard: Tactical Ill-disciplined Or Instruction From Manager?

Playing as a right-winger in majority of last season for Liverpool, he has been given the license to roam around the midfield by Rafa. But under McClaren, he seemed to be lost and running around like a headless chicken. I have no idea whose fault is it at all because we don't know what's going on behind the scene.

Gerrard is a dynamic player who wants to get involve in everything and therefore playing on the right wing restricts him from doing so. But as England's best player currently (I think), he has to lead by example and therefore it means, he has to have a 'free role'. So he tend drift inwards to the middle of the field, leaving acres of space on the right for poor ol' Neville to cover.

It's alright if you drift inwards ala Luis Garcia when he plays on the right. But drifting inwards too early (like Gerrard) means that the middle of the pitch will become very tight and therefore Lampard and Carrick are stuffed off any space.

The Macedonians took advantage of this flaw and launched waves and waves of attack on England's right hand side, and with Gerrard missing, Neville had a hard time together with King.

3) Where's The Pass 'n Move?

As a nation with such proud footballing tradition, it's a shame that their players struggles to keep hold of possesion and pass the ball accurately and with purpose. Michael Carrick was brought in to do exactly that, but he seemed too off paced and sluggush. Lampard got crowded out by the masses of Macedonian defence.

There was no sense of purpose when passing the ball as though they passed it because they don't want someone breathing down their neck. They passed it sideways and backwards and when finally they pass the ball forward, it seemed like they're trying too hard to impress with those one touch flicks and such.

Another thing was the movement of the players. They all seemed very slow to react and always wait for the ball to roll to their feet instead of running towards it and take it. Poor passing in the final third of the field eventually leads to:

4) Crouch and Rooney Isolated

Don't you think so? They're like two players in white shirts within a sea of red. There was no support whatsoever until it was too late. They're feeding off scraps and the service from the midfield was unbelievably bad.

A couple of times when Crouch got hold of the ball and waiting for someone to make a run, there was no one and there was nothing he could do but surrender possesion. Rooney still looked very unfit and lost out there. A couple of poor touch and hesitation rendered him ineffective. With virtually no supply line, the combination of Crouch and Rooney lacked sharpness and fluidity.

5) Terry's Flaw

Some might not agree with this point, but John Terry might be one of the causes of their problems. We all know that Terry is not the fastest defender in the world and therefore, the defence line have to be pushed backward a little so that they leave little space behind them.

This made the defence and midfield a little disjointed and once again, Carrick was supposed to be the one linking the two departments up, but he was ineffective.

6) Failure To Impose

Midfield caught in no mans land. They have no idea whether to drop back or move forward to support the strikers. Therefore England failed to 'surround' Macedonia and stamp their authority in the game. The players didn't step up the gear and hasten the pace of the game, rather looking lazy and slow. They couldn't find the rythmn and that sums it all up.

7) No Creativity, No Flair

You cannot fault the players or managers for this one, but you got to admit that England lacks a playmaker of any sort. Look at Argentina and you have Riquelme (retired, though). Look at Brazil and you have Kaka. And England? The closest thing you get is Gerrard, but of course he got shafted on the right. Joe Cole is another one of those flair players, but sadly, he's unavailable at the moment.

Looking at the English players reminds you of those students you have in school who gets A* in everything because they memorises everything instead of really understanding it. They only excel in the things they're taught.

Looking at a player like Lampard. We all know that he's a pretty good player and his strong points are he's physically fit and of course, his shots usually ends up in the back of the net. But he's the type of player I branded as the 'technical players', who excel at the things they are taught, but other than that, they're average at best. He's good at shooting because during his youth, he was made to practice them all day long. Not that I'm critical about him and doubting his football talents, but other than that, do you actually see him doing anything apart from that?

He's not the only one of these 'technical' players. But the thing is if the trend continues, England will continue to suffer. The lack of natural flair players is making England a very dull and uncreative side. Technically good they might be, but natural talent with proper guidance will definitely be the best.

But,

Early days still for McClaren. The qualifying round is still a long way to go and he cannot afford to let his boys drop their heads. They will face a very difficult encounter with Croatia without Gerrard, but if McClaren could go back to basics, then perhaps he will bring out the best in a group of good players.

Macca, You Got Merk'd

After all these weeks of bombardment from the mass media about how a team should be consistent with the starting players (etc. Liverpool, Liverpool & Liverpool), Steve McClaren decides to turn on deaf ears and bring radical change to his England side for the game against FYR Macedonia this weekend.

Radical as in, changing from the familiar 4-4-2 formation to a untested 3-5-2 formation. If you thought that changing personal is bad, then how about changing formation? I have always believe that no matter how much changes the manager makes, the system and formation must not be tempered with.

So now is McClaren going to use 2 totally different formation against Macedonia and Croatia? If he is, then he is making a serious mistake. Talking about 3-5-2, which team actually plays that formation? None. Yes, so the players will need some time to get used to the system. And everyone knows that Macedonia is going to be the 'guinea pig' or cannon fodder for England this weekend, but just what IF it backfires?

You can imagine the English papers on Sunday morning, having a field day of their own, the press will go 'McClaren out!' and '3-5-2 not the way!'. So by this radical change, McClaren is putting his reputation at stake and also how smooth the road ahead is depends very much on this not so important match.

Will he then revert back to 4-4-2 against a much stronger Croatia? Then if it is, where will they find the consistency? I just don't think that playing two different system in 3 days will get be of any good but in fact, it will cause confusion and disjointedness.

So good luck Macca, if it backfires, don't say I didn't warn you!

Likely Line-Up
Robinson; G Neville, Ferdinand, Terry; Wright-Phillips, Gerrard, Carrick, Lampard, A Cole; Rooney, Crouch.