Steve McClaren faces the press after England's recent loss to Spain. (Jon Super/Associated Press).
Soccer: John F. Molinaro
England is more pussycat than lion
Last Updated Friday, Feb. 16, 2007
by John F. Molinaro
Maybe the English national team should exchange its Three Lions moniker for a more suitable nickname that accurately reflects the current state of the squad.
That's the general consensus amongst English fans and the press after an England team that was more pussycat than lion stumbled to a 1-0 loss against Spain in a friendly last week.
So meek and mild was the performance by the English players that they were unmercifully booed by the jeering crowd at Old Trafford when they slumped off the field. Manager Steve McClaren was missing several starters due to injury, but even the absence of John Terry, Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves couldn't explain why a passionless English team looked so lethargic and uninterested against the Spaniards.
The British newspapers, infamous for making a mountain out of a mole hill, for once got it right when they carved up England's spineless performance the following day.
"McClaren's misfits fail to find answers to Spanish inquisition," cried the London Times. "McClaren feels the heat as England freeze," ran the headline in The Guardian.
"Spainful," read The Mirror. "It's crisis time for England as McClaren fails with Spanish test."
The loss, England's first at home in more than three years, extended the team's winless streak to four games and has many English fans worried.
McClaren's appointment last summer was supposed to make people forget England's dreadful World Cup campaign under former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. It hasn't quite worked out that way: McClaren's tenure as national team custodian makes for grim reading.
It's been five months since England won a game - an unconvincing 1-0 victory on the road against Macedonia - and McClaren's seven-game reign in charge has yielded just three wins. Goals have been equally scarce: England has scored one goal and registered two shots on net in its last four games.
England's qualification for Euro 2008, thought to be a mere formality when it was first drawn into what it believed was an easy group, is in jeopardy.
Over a four-day span last October, England was held to a disastrous 0-0 draw by Macedonia and suffered a humiliating defeat to Croatia in the Euro qualifiers. Surprisingly, England sits tied with Macedonia and Israel for third in Group E on seven points, three points behind first-place Croatia and one point behind Russia.
Confidence is waning, especially after last week's loss to Spain, ahead of England's crucial road game in Israel on March 24. Should Croatia and Russia post wins over their weak opponents (Macedonia and Estonia, respectively) on the same day, England could drop as low as fifth in the group if it falters against a pesky Israeli side - not beyond the realm of possibility considering its recent poor form.
It would be rash of the English Football Association to fire McClaren should England fall short in Israel, but you have to wonder if the FA now regrets hiring him in the first place.
McClaren is a nice guy, but his resume is hardly awe-inspiring. After serving as an assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, McClaren landed his first managerial job when he took over at Middlesbrough.
McClaren helped the team reach its highest ever finish in the Premiership - seventh in the 2004-05 season - and led them to the final of last year's UEFA Cup, but other than that, his tenure at Middlesbrough could hardly be labelled a success.
He did, however, have one thing going for him: his nationality.
The FA was so eager to hire an Englishman after Eriksson's five-year tenure that it settled for McClaren, the 'best' choice of a weak crop of English managers.
You get what you pay for and that much has been obvious with McClaren at the helm: aside from recognizing David Beckham's "best before" date had expired and booting the Real Madrid midfielder off the team, he has made one questionable move after another.
His use of a laughable 3-5-2 formation against Croatia produced catastrophic results and his insistence on playing Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard side by side in the centre of midfield, when common sense dictates they are too similar in style to be effective, is baffling.
McClaren lacks the charisma and tactical nous to inspire his players, but at least he's English.
However, that doesn't mean much to the majority of English fans who are hungry for World Cup success.
Creator of the game though it may be, England has woefully underachieved in international competition, especially for a country with such an inflated opinion of itself and where it ranks in the game's hierarchy.
England's one World Cup title was achieved on home soil in 1966; since then, it's been 40 years of futility with only one appearance in the semifinals (in 1990).
Don't expect England's World Cup drought to end in 2010 in South Africa. It'll take years to rebuild this team and a manager far more skilled than McClaren to make the Three Lions roar again.
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