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I Remain Unconvinced, Steve McClaren!!It's been 47 days since the misery of Germany, 47 days since I vowed never again to be excited about English football, and 47 hours since a small, foolish part of me began to think, "Hey, maybe we're not doomed after all." But then I remembered 2001 when England, under the new management of Sven, smoked Spain 3-0. I then reviewed the 2nd half of play against Greece. The small, foolish part of me that had a brief flash of hope crawled back into the abyss.
Big John Terry opened the scoring after 13 minutes, glancing a header past Greek goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis. The goal had more to do with Nikopolidis being awful than anything else. At the 29th minute, Frank Lampard lucked out to make it 2-0. And then twice before the half, Peter Crouch managed a brace... how he keeps doing this is beyond me. The guy is awful. Now, I know I'm not supposed to complain because he has 8 goals in 12 caps and that should be acceptable but the Liverpool striker is a damned disaster. Had he not been around, David Beckham (and now Steven Gerrard) wouldn't have taken 80 pseudo dead ball kicks from the halfline in weak attempts to feed Crouch the ball. On the plus side, the lads played with some zip and many of the elements missing from Sven's teams like pace and energy were present through the first 45. But it must be noted that the reigning European Champions were absolute shite.. they were like a JV squad out there. It was almost baffling to see how bad they were. So while it's great that England didn't play to the level of the competition as has become typical in the last 6 years, there wasn't much going on in the way of competition either. That said, Greece's inability to truly challenge the lads was of no concern, as McClaren stated the purpose of the match was to work not only on our level of intensity but the style of play as well. He encouraged an up and down tempo that called for quick pace, as well as quieter spells that allowed players to recover their strength. In the summer heat of the major tournaments, England have never been capable of recuperating in that manner... it would have been a brilliant call had it extended past the interval. As far as the players go, the dropping of David Beckham proved somewhat beneficial this time around. Steven Gerrard was moved to the Beckham role on the right, which allowed for a complementary partnership of Owen Hargreaves and Frank Lampard to be established in the center. Who knew Gerrard and Lampard could be on the field at the same time without the abilities of both being completely destroyed? It's a revelation, I tell ya! But I guess that's all I have to say here, as I'm depressing myself with this. There were some definite bright spots but Steve McClaren and our "new" England can't be adequately evaluated until we play a team that does better than improve from shite to not so shite after the interval. There is a lot of work to be done and improvement made, so we'll see how things progress.  Posted at August 18, 2006 12:09 PM Permalink • Filed under: Football (Soccer) |
On Wednesday, McClaren's lads ushered in a new era with a 4-0 thrashing of Greece. After dropping David Beckham and making a host of changes from the Sven-Goran Eriksson error, it was definitely a step in the right direction, at least, in the first half.
Comments (9): I Remain Unconvinced, Steve McClaren!!
Cullen Barker
August 18, 2006 2:41 PM
I saw it in a similar way. The first half was refreshing but we fell off in the 2nd (not that we had to press though). We'll need a test against a team of true form; Greece has taken an exceptional spill off the map since Euro 04.
Britton Jagger
August 18, 2006 6:19 PM
Considering where we've been, anything is an improvement. I was happy with it.
zoogs
August 18, 2006 10:51 PM
Call me a sucker but I think their preformance was an improvement and the future is bright for the Three Lions. Yeah Greece was a shite team on that day but what was important to me was how the lads performed on the pitch irrespective of who they were playing against...need I remind you we've played like shite against shitty teams. Remember our peformance against T&T during the WC?
A. Cole, O. Hargreaves, Downing and Gerrard were magnificent. My only concern is our striker situation cause Crouch, I also have idea how he's scoring, especially considering Rooney is always getting himself suspended or injured in some manner.
God Save The Queen!!!
Shiloh
August 19, 2006 12:59 AM
"So while it's great that England didn't play to the level of the competition as has become typical in the last 6 years..." She needn't be reminded, mate.
The truth is, you're a sucker. We came out of the half like we'd been put out on Sven's drugs and the next 45 was pure Sven football. Hargreaves and Cole were certain bright spots all game long, as was Defoe's speed, but Gerrard was not solid. Putting him in right was the great decision, as it allowed Lamps and Hargreaves to be productive while he wasted space playing Beckham.
This was nothing to be excited about and in no way could this game be used as a sign that the future is bright. We played a nice 30 minutes of football, patchworked another 15, and simply survived the last 45. It was one game against a shite team. Sven accomplished as much in his first match. Don't drink your Kool-Aid just yet.
Toxic
August 19, 2006 8:42 AM
Gerrard was lucky not magnificent and the substitutions were as retarded as those Sven used to come up with.
zoogs25
August 19, 2006 9:56 AM
Not only am I drinking my Kool-Aid Shiloh I'm jugging it with excitment brotha.
What part of experimenting is missing to you guys, granted the second half was a dud but that was because the substitutions were to test out the kinks to his 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 formations.
Your's Truly,
Sucker
Gavin Norris
August 20, 2006 12:54 PM
I hate Lumpalard but until Gerrard can prove that he can manage without being the squad's tactical lynchpin, I will continue to have no faith in his international abilities. He was lucky on Wednesday and proved nothing at all.
I'll also grant that McClaren was, at least, trying to do something positive with his substitutions but they were ghastly moves all the same. How this has not come up in the papers leaves me quite baffled.
Colin
August 20, 2006 8:02 PM
It's not come up because the rose-coloured glasses are still on the collective, fans and media alike. Until the honeymoon is over, we can forget about reasonably objective articles from the press. This match grades out around a C+/B-. However, I'm certain the lads will improve, as I can't fathom any manager on the planet ever getting less out of a squad than Eriksson would have.
A.
August 20, 2006 11:05 PM
New research shows that 8 out of 10 Frank Lampard goals get a deflection before they go in.