McClaren......

[Joey Jones]

A selection of headlines from the papers after England lost 3-2 to Croatia and failed to qualify for Euro 2008: I'll Get My Croat - Daily Mirror. Out You Cro - Daily Star. A Wally With A Brolly - Daily Mail.

Tomorrow's headlines will probably be 'McClaren's reign ends in the rain'

[robbielad9]

Yeah, the meeting didn't start until 8:30 and by 9:00 they'd released the details that he'd been sacked. And with a £2m pay off according to SSN, money well spent hey?

I dont think it WAS money well spent Joey, i look at it more as £2m wasted. Why give long contracts to England Managers? The saga with Ericsson (although his results/stats look better than most), should have taught them a lesson. Personally, i'd give them a 12 month rolling contract.

[tomasjj]

I'm not sure what he could have done with the defence to be honest - with the players out or unfit that he had he pretty much had to go with that back 4 and Carson/Robinson was a bit of a devil/deep blue sea quandry really.

Well, if Cole was available, they could have played him at left back.

As for the defense as a whole, I think he should have given such a inexperienced defensive line more cover - ie played Hargreaves and Barry.

[Frank Leroux]

They're a very good side to be fair but I don't think they'll win it - a bit like the Czechs in Euro 2004 perhaps.

Yeh, maybe. 16/1 seems about right.

Looking around the groups (this probably needs a new thread, though) there are very few sides whose form would tell you they'll win the thing. Lots of flattered teams out there because their respective groups were so poor. I'd say this group, with the Scottish one, might have been the most difficult (as it turned out).

Anyway, back on topic. McLaren and Staunton were so alike to me. Gave no external indication that they knew what they were really doing. It was always going to end like this. For both of them.

[tomasjj]

I got the distinct impression watching last night that the English camp (McLaren and players) were expecting/hoping for a Croatia looking for an easy, agreeable 0-0 or 1-1. After all, the Croats had qualified.

Bilic had different ideas though and his team started like a house on fire, the Carson boo-boo helped, of course. Croatia had the initiative from the off and England couldn't really regain it.

Good side Croatia, though - what odds to win the Tournament?

But England regained the initiative and it was 2-2.
That is when McClaren should have calmed things down and brought on a defensive midfielder for one of SG or Lampard.

[dww]

I dont think it WAS money well spent Joey, i look at it more as £2m wasted. Why give long contracts to England Managers? The saga with Ericsson (although his results/stats look better than most), should have taught them a lesson. Personally, i'd give them a 12 month rolling contract.

I'm not sure - I think we need to appoint someone to create a pattern of play over a long period of time and as such we should have a coach on a long term deal. However we should have a get out clause if they fail to qualify for a major tournament otherwise we are rewarding failure which helps no one but the manager and his agent.

[johnp]

FFS. Would they not give him one more chance? Muppets in the FA

[Pacman]

FFS. Would they not give him one more chance? Muppets in the FA

Spot the paddy

[Frank Leroux]

But England regained the initiative and it was 2-2.
That is when McClaren should have calmed things down and brought on a defensive midfielder for one of SG or Lampard.

I think the initiative was handed to England through the stupid, stupid penalty.

Sitting back against a team like Croatia was going to mean trouble. They're too skilled not to find a way through at least once or twice for chances. England needed to try and maintain the momentum in an effort to get the third.

Sitting back is what we Irish do...against teams like Macedonia and Malta..much to our credit.

[Shanks]

Villa fans must be getting a bit worried with Martin O'Neill being heavily linked.

I think as some people have said before, we need to be looking at replacing the people who appointed him.

I blame the pitch.

[Bob]

You know that feeling when you're stoned and you've hit the giggles etc... Then your face hurts cause your jaw and cheekbones are hurting.... well that's the best way i can use to describe how i feel right now. I can't stop and now it's actually painful.

[johnp]

Spot the paddy

[saveferris]

To be fair in my opinion his biggest mistake was his childish insistance that he wanted to be atatcking and was playing a 4-3-3. The interviews with him and Gerrard shown before the match had me worried as they were so keen on showing this rather than giving enough respect to Croatia. Then we started and the two players either side of Coruch were far too wide to support him and far too far away from the CMs for us to build attacks - it pretty much epitomised the McClaren era.

The team sent out could easily have started 4-5-1 with one of Gerrard or Lampard tasked to get close to Crouch and we would have been able to keep it tighter in midfield and offer more in attack.

I'm not sure what he could have done with the defence to be honest - with the players out or unfit that he had he pretty much had to go with that back 4 and Carson/Robinson was a bit of a devil/deep blue sea quandry really.

To be fair mate, the midfield could have had any formation you liked the defence gave the opposition so much space they could do what they liked, all three goals came from poor marking. In addition hardly any of the players did the basics well, decent passing for example was non existant for most of the game.

The quality of a manager should fairly be over a run of games and as a result McLaren failed (considering Sven has a very similar team), but yesterday the players didnt need to be told what to do, they knew they had glory in their own hands and pretty much given to them on a plate after Israel's result. They failed yesterday.

Slaven Bilic was right yesterday when he said it wasnt the formation, pitch or manager's fault, it was just that Croatia are a better team.

[Neil Young]

To be fair mate, the midfield could have had any formation you liked the defence gave the opposition so much space they could do what they liked, all three goals came from poor marking. In addition hardly any of the players did the basics well, decent passing for example was non existant for most of the game.

The quality of a manager should fairly be over a run of games and as a result McLaren failed (considering Sven has a very similar team), but yesterday the players didnt need to be told what to do, they knew they had glory in their own hands and pretty much given to them on a plate after Israel's result. They failed yesterday.

Slaven Bilic was right yesterday when he said it wasnt the formation, pitch or manager's fault, it was just that Croatia are a better team.

Isn't it the manager's job to get them to play as a team?

I think it's hard to argue with the notion that England's players aren't all that good and the manager failed woefully to get the best out of them.

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Anyone else think he will be back at Boro in the coming months. Southgate is struggling