McClaren’s Days are Numbered--England Lose 2-1 in Moscow
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by Jgiuffra
England reverted to the form Steve McClaren has cultivated since he took over from Eriksson last night at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow—unsure and clumsy. England set out their stall with all the usual suspects apart from a few notable exclusions—the Chelsea defensive duo of Ashley Cole and John Terry out with an ankle injury and a tweaked knee respectively. Cole was replaced by Everton’s Joleon Lescott and Sol Campbell got another call up to fill in for Terry. Still, there is enough talent to overturn a Russian side with their 3rd choice goalkeeper between the uprights, who, by the way, is only 17 years old, right? It’s the equivalent of having a pre-schooler as your starting striker for goodness sake! The unbelievable answer is no. England had neither the heart nor inclination to grind out the result they so desperately needed. Guus Hiddink had all the right moves, McClaren had none.
It started off well enough. Rooney opened the scoring for England with a fantastic volley from just inside the 18 yard box. Everything looked good, except for the lack of wing-play that has been so decisive for England of late. McClaren seemed to have told the wingers to pinch in and crowd the middle and for Gerrard and Barry to play a more defensive midfield holding roles. This was a bit of a blunder in retrospect as both of Russia’s goals came from the wings and the deeper midfielders invited those attacks. In the 68th minute Rooney found himself in the unfamiliar left-back position—how that happened I have no idea. He made a rash challenge just outside the penalty box on Russia’s Konstantin Zyryanov that was given—incorrectly--as a penalty. The penalty was dispatched by the 2nd half substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko with the other Roman—Abramovic—enjoying himself in the crowd. The Spartak Moscow man then pounced on a poor punch from--you guessed it--Paul Robinson to put the Russian 1 goal to the good when 5 minutes before they were dead-and-buried. There was no way back for England.
It must be noted that stand-in Captain Steven Gerrard missed an opportunity to put the game beyond doubt just after half-time. Gareth Barry placed a free kick perfectly for a volley that Gerrard hit wide. He may have been surprised to have so much time and space in such a dangerous position. Who knows?
It may seem like I blame the players. I don’t. If they performed poorly—Lescott and Robinson—they were only on the pitch because they were chosen by the un-special one. If you invite the opposing side into your half by playing offensive midfielders in holding roles, you can’t blame the striker playing out of position—Rooney—for a clumsy challenge. Blame rests solely with the Manager in my opinion. There are too many guaranteed starters in the England side. What England should do is look to their continental cousins, Italy, to see how to motivate players to fight for their positions. Not even Totti is a guaranteed starter for them. He has to perform in the League before his spot is assured.
Now all of England is hoping that the Israeli’s can do them a favour by taking some points from Russia in Tel-Aviv so that if they can manage to get a result against Croatia it won’t be too little too late.
