Sven-Gorran Eriksson is a superb manager by any estimation, as shown by his transformation (albeit with a hefty cash injection) of a moribund Manchester City into potential big-four contenders. He proved incapable of turning England into a winning team, and during the last World Cup campaign the team didn’t really look world-beating either. He did a damn sight better than McClaren, which demonstrates the difference a great manager can make to a team at any level, but surely there has to be some problem with the skill-level of English players in general.

I agree with Cascarino that youth coaching in England is a lot better today than it was even ten years ago. It is indisputable that young English players receive better training now than they used to. That’s not to say that English youth coaching is up to scratch with the rest of the world, but I’ll leave that for another time. Where I really break with Cascarino is here:

“…it’s logical that only a couple of English players will prove good enough for Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool. Because only a couple of Spanish players are good enough for these clubs, only a couple of French players, only the very best from Africa. England have only one Wayne Rooney – but Spain have just the one Cesc Fàbregas, Argentina only a single Lionel Messi. Manchester United produced a remarkable crop of kids in the 1990s, but that was a freak generation.”

This is true. The thing is, though, that the Spanish national team can call on a host of skilled players from La Liga, just as the Italians can call on a host of players from Serie A. Are there any English players in any of those leagues today? The Premier League might only have the very best foreigners, but there are still plenty of others playing top-flight football in Spain and Italy who play in their national sides alongside “the very best” who play in the Premiership. Only a few English players play for England’s top clubs, but no English players play for any of Spain or Italy’s top clubs.

What does this international deficiency mean? It meant that when Ashley Cole was injured for the match against Croatia, England were forced to rely on the (let’s be honest here) Championship-standard Wayne Bridge. When Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen were injured, the only even remotely world-class striker left was Peter Crouch, a perpetual late-game subsitute at Liverpool. His only potential partner in the attack was Jermaine Defoe, Tottenham’s third-choice striker and one who has barely played a game this season. Until English players are good enough – and cheap enough – for them to play in Italy and Spain in large numbers, England will continue to have a serious problem with maintaing depth in the international squad.

Much as I’ve criticised English youth coaching in the past, there are a lot of reasons to be positive about young English footballers: check out England’s under-21s, who have been nigh-on unbeatable in their qualifying campaign so far. I have no doubt that England will never have a problem finding 11 world-class footballers for the national team; the question that remains to be answered is where the second-choice 11 will come from and at which clubs they will learn their craft. On current evidence, the answer is more likely to be Norwich City than Real Madrid.

More reading for the terminally-compulsive link clicker:

The Times’s analysis of England’s selection problems reflects pretty much what I just said – who do we have when Rio Ferdinand and John Terry are injured? How bad do things have to be when our best replacements are Sol Campbell and Joleon Lescott – one virtually a geriatric, the other playing like one?

Sid Lowe has an excellent run-down of Fabio Capello’s pluses as the Italian becomes one of the pundits’ favourites to take on the England job. The Times reckons that Capello is a shoo-in for the job.

The Guardian canvasses 10 Premier League managers for their view on the next England manager. Weirdly, Derby County’s Billy Davies makes the most sensible comment:

I think it is important to understand the culture, the environment, the fans and the way they think. I still think the England job is a great job but a really difficult one and it is getting harder because of unrealistic expectation. Croatia are a good side and yet some people think they have a divine right to beat them. Why?”

Case in point: as far as I can tell, my match preview last week was the only one on the Internet (at least, the only one turned up by Google) that gave any analysis whatsoever of Croatia’s team selection. I got the impression when researching mine that none of the national newspapers (or major websites) seemed to care who Croatia fielded, since such a small and insignificant country couldn’t possibly threaten England’s god-given right to be in Euro 2008. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Then, depressing news: The Times runs down just who is likely to be in England’s qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup. It doesn’t make pleasant reading.

Ever wanted to know how many times McClaren changed the team lineup while England manager? The Times has you covered.

And that’s it for the weekend. Enjoy.

Peter Crouch: Literally the only man on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes who seemed to give a shit about the outcome. Crouch fought for the ball, created chances, and capitalised on Beckham’s superb cross to create England’s only deserved goal of the evening. Why Rafa Benitez won’t play the man I’ll never know.

David Beckham: Literally the only other man on the pitch at any time who seemed to give a shit about the outcome. He may only have played for 45 minutes, but England created more chances and looked more threatening when he was there, and England’s only justifiable goal was the product of his perfect cross onto Peter Crouch’s chest. Let’s just hope the MLS keeps him fit enough to stick with the England squad, even if only as an impact substitute. He sure as hell made an impact in this game.

Frank Lampard: His performance may have been one step up from a small boy in a park, but I had a good laugh when the stadium announced that he’d won man-of-the-match. In a game as crap as this, that’s enough of a positive for me. On the downside, I was – and still am – very offended that someone at Wembley awarded man-of-the-match to Frank Lampard rather than Peter Crouch (the only deserving English player) or … well … any of the Croatian players, as each of them played better than pretty much every English player other than Crouch and Beckham.

And now, The Bad:

Scott Carson: I’ll be honest and say that I agreed with this decision at the time, but playing Scott Carson was almost certainly a mistake. In a game as big as this one, you can’t afford to have a young, third choice goalkeeper trying to work through his nerves. David James would have been a better choice.

Wayne Bridge: The man’s barely Championship standard, let alone a decent replacement for Ashley Cole. Based on his performance on Wendnesday, McClaren would have been better off playing a half-fit Cole than a fully-fit Bridge.

Sol Campbell: He just looks old, and he shouldn’t be asked to put on an England shirt again – it’s just not fair on a man who was a great player for England. Croatia’s attack made him look like a doddering pensioner.

Joleon Lescott: Maybe he played so badly against Russia because he was out of position. Wait … no.

Micah Richards: He’s still one of England’s best prospects for the future, but can someone knock some brains into the lad? His positioning was off and his marauding runs into the penalty area, while creating a few chances, left England’s right wing badly unprotected and left him stranded from the Croatian attack far too often, in one case leading to a Croatian goal.

Shaun Wright-Phillips: Even Ian Wright said he wasn’t playing very well, which is about as damning as it gets. Replacing him with Beckham was one of the few things McClaren did right.

Frank Lampard: He may have made me laugh by receiving the Man-of-the-Match award, but bloody hell, the man did next to nothing for most of the ninety minutes. One of the guys watching the game with me commented, “Is it just me, or did Frank Lampard suddenly appear in the middle of the game to take a penalty, and then vanish again?”

Steven Gerrard: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Steven Gerrard can’t play in an England shirt, and certainly not alongside Frank Lampard. He played reasonably well when paired with Gareth Barry in the past, but it’s telling that Barry – and not he – won man-of-the-match in all those games, when you would have expected a newly-freed-up Gerrard to be playing in his element. Let’s be honest: either play him on the right, as at Liverpool, or don’t play him at all.

Joe Cole: Didn’t really accomplish much, but he’s almost a positive. Worked hard, which is about the best you can say. Trouble is that he’s not really a left-winger: he’s right-footed, for one, which means he ends up cutting into the centre rather than doing his job and attacking down the left. It’s not Cole’s fault, but it did hamper his game.

Gareth Barry: Showed himself up as above-average but far from world-class with his first match against truly world-class opposition. The only other thing McClaren got right on Wednesday night was getting rid of him at half-time.

What else went wrong? The tactics:

I’m not one of those who will lay this entirely on the shoulders of McClaren: if any of England’s players had put in a performance this bad for their club, they’d have been on the bench for the next five fixtures. The key problem was the the players didn’t seem to give a damn, or have any desire to play a real game of football. McClaren is responsible for sending out a team that was incapable and unwilling to play together, and for using new and untried tactics against the best team in England’s qualifying group. What boggles my mind is that McClaren, after Michael Owen’s injury, seemed to have no contingency plan for being left with a solitary fit world-class striker in his squad. Considering Owen and Rooney’s propensity for injuries, surely a competent manager would have devoted some thought to his tactics in the (likely) event that Michael Owen injured himself while reading to his son, or while sitting quietly in a chair, let alone in a friendly match against Austria. The players deserve a lot of blame for playing what was, by all accounts, an appalling game of football. McClaren deserves to be shot for allowing them to get away with it.

Croatia:
Goalkeeper: Stipe Pletikosa, a regular in the Croatian national team and the first-choice goalkeeper since the 2002 World Cup (although he was injured for much of Euro 2004). Hasn’t made many mistakes since his Under-21s days.

Defence: On the right, Manchester City’s summer signing Vedran Corluka will turn out for Croatia. He’s 6′4″, athletic enough to play at wing-back when needed, and skillful with the ball. On the left, Josip Šimunić, an Australian-born ethnic Croat who currently plays in Germany and has seen some interest from Chelsea. He’s best known for being the player who received three yellow cards from English referee Graham Poll during a 2006 World Cup match against Australia (but, to be fair on Poll, Šimunić does have an Australian accent and, but for his chosen citizenship, would have been playing for his country of birth). In the Croatian centre, Robert Kovač and Dario Šimić offer a great deal of experience and technical skill. The former has played at the top level in Europe, at Bayern Munich and Juventus, and is a skillful, intelligent defender who could cause England some serious problems. The latter is Croatia’s most experienced player, with 94 caps to his name, and the only current Croatian player to have appeared with the team in every major tournament it has been involved in. At 32, Euro 2008 will most likely be his final tournament.

Midfield: On the left wing will be Niko Kranjčar. Extremely talented at just 23 years old and currently playing for Portsmouth, Micah Richards is going to have his work cut out for him. Niko Kovač, the brother of central defender Robert, will play in the central midfield and captain the Croatian team. He’s been Croatia’s key player throughout their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, and is still scoring regularly for his club in Austria at the age of 36. His partner in the centre is Luka Modrić, a 22-year old Dinamo Zagreb player whose potential has attracted the attention of several Premiership and Bundesliga clubs, including Arsenal, who now have the right of first refusal on the player as part of their signing of teammate Eduardo da Silva. On the right wing will be Darijo Srna, a 25-year-old (actually a right-back for his club, Shakhtar Donetsk) who has been linked with Liverpool, Everton, and Newcastle.

Attack: First and foremost, Eduardo da Silva. Although born in Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo is a naturalised Croatian citizen and signed for Arsenal earlier this year. Since then, he’s made 8 appearances for the team, scoring 4 times and netting 5 assists, an impressive strike rate for a player outside the regular starting 11. His strike rate at previous club Dynamo Zagreb was even more impressive – 73 goals from 98 appearances. He will be dangerous. His partner in the attack will be Ivica Olic, a 28-year-old Bundesliga striker whose record isn’t quite as good as Eduardo’s, but still manages to impress.

Tactically, Croatia have tended to favour a standard 4-4-2 or modified 4-4-1-1 against stronger opposition during this qualifying campaign, using that system against Israel, Estonia, Russia and England. Against weaker opponents, they’ve experimented with a 3-5-2 (once against Russia, 0-0), a 4-3-1-2 (once against Andorra, 7-0), and a 3-4-1-2 (twice: against Estonia, 1-0, and Andorra, 6-0).

England:
Goalkeeper: Paul Robinson has been dropped in favour of Scott Carson. I’m not convinced if this is the best time to drop him, especially when you consider he’s maintained the most clean sheets of any goalkeeper in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Still, his confidence is shot to hell and the talented young Scott Carson might be a safer bet. The Guardian isn’t so sure.

Defence: Ashley Cole is out, presumably having been judged unfit. He’s replaced on the left by Wayne Bridge. The rest of the defence is as expected: Micah Richards, Sol Campbell, and Joleon Lescott.

Midfield: Bit of a surprise here, as David Beckham is (justifiably) out of the starting lineup, replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillps. Gareth Barry will play as holding midfielder rather than Owen Hargreaves, who must not have seemed fully match-fit in training. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard will link up in central midfield again, for better or worse, and the always-reliable Joe Cole will play on the left.

Attack: Peter Crouch, as expected, will play as lone striker. Steven Gerrard will probably be given a fairly free role in the midfield in order to act as support.

Tactically, England have played a standard 4-4-2 in every match so far this qualifying campaign, with the exception of their 0-2 defeat to Croatia, during which they experimented with a disastrous 5-3-2. Thanks to injuries and suspensions, England will field a 4-1-4-1 formation tonight.

And the stakes if we lose? You might think it’s just national pride, but you’d be wrong: the English economy is set to lose as much as £250 million, while the English FA could lose as much as £25 million. English consumer spending swelled by around £1 billion during the last World Cup, so a defeat at Wembley tonight could have disastrous consequences.

For the last word on England’s lineup, read Simon Barnes in The Times: England’s defence will decide this match, and our back four (hell, back five) are far from a known quantity.

And if the prospect of watching our brainless wonders bumble through another game doesn’t appeal to you, consider following the England Under-21s - they’re a damn sight more fun to watch, even when they lose.

Regardless: good luck England.

Goalkeeper: The Times is reporting that Paul Robinson has performed abysmally in training, which probably means Scott Carson will get his first competitive start for England. The Guardian has the same story, but goes further and actually claims that McClaren has already decided to bench Robinson in favour of Carson, so decide which paper you trust more.

Defenders: John Terry is definitely out (this direct from McClaren), as is Rio Ferdinand (suspended). Ashley Cole’s fitness is seriously in doubt, so Wayne Bridge will almost certainly take his place. Micah Richards will undoubtably play at right-back, and a Sol Campbell and Joleon Lescott central defensive partnership seems certain.

Midfielders: It seems pretty certain that England will play a 5-man midfield with a lone striker up-front, which all but guarantees that both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard will start. The holding midfielder will be either Gareth Barry or Owen Hargreaves, with the former more likely given his excellent record for England this year and Hargreaves’s dubious fitness. Joe Cole is a shoo-in for the left-wing position, while David Beckham and Shaun Wright-Phillips will compete for the right-wing. Given McClaren’s comments about the need for “experienced players” against Croatia, Beckham is a fairly safe bet despite his poor fitness.

Strikers: Peter Crouch, on his own. With neither Wayne Rooney nor Michael Owen fit, the alternatives are limited – Jermain Defoe? Alan Smith?

I’ll post later with a rundown of Croatia’s likely lineup, if I can find any information on it – the British press is almost completely focused on England, which is a shame, given that it’s impossible to assess McClaren’s team selection without knowing who England will be up against. Yet another reason why we’re not actually very good at international football.

The Guardian’s Richard Williams argues that the “Golden Generation” is rapidly becoming the “Silver Generation”, and makes a superb argument for England switching to an Argentinian-style 4-2-1-3, with Frank Lampard in the playmaker role, Gareth Barry and Owen Hargreaves as holding midfielders, and Theo Walcott and Gabriel Agbonlahor up front. I’m not so convinced that Ashley Young is capable of being the third member of England’s forward trio, but it’s a fascinating idea, not least because this would mean David Beckham, Peter Crouch, Steven Gerrard, and Joe Cole on the bench. This will, sadly, never happen (not least because of the names on that bench), but it’s a great idea that, under a competent manager, could be England’s future.

The always-excellent Martin Samuel of The Times wants David Beckham out of the England squad for Wednesday’s match against Croatia, and as poor a replacement as Shaun Wright-Phillips is, it’s hard to argue with him.

Croatia’s manager, Slaven Bilic, thinks McClaren has done a decent job. He also rates England’s qualifying group as more difficult than that containing France and Italy, so I think it’s safe to ignore the crazy man.

The Sun claims that John Terry, half-fit, just out of surgery, and presumably doped to the gills, wants to captain England on Wednesday. The really sad part is, I wouldn’t be surprised if McClown preferred a semi-conscious John Terry to Sol Campbell or Joleon Lescott.

Football365.com has a good discussion of McClaren’s squad selection dilemmas, predicting a return for Paul Robinson and a five-man midfield with both Gerrard and Lampard, but no Shaun Wright-Phillips.

And for a bit of light relief, Football365.com also has a (satirical) pre-match interview with Peter Crouch, in which he truly speaks his mind about England’s chances on Wednesday.

Parker was ingnored by Sven, and so far by Steve, but in this sort of form and with Owen Hargreaves (very, very) injured, he’s got to be due a recall.



Hargreaves recent performances have proven the necessity of a tenacious defensive midfielder, and while Michael Carrick is all very nice, he’s maybe a little too nice. He doesn’t chase and hassle the way Parker does. Likewise, deploying Ledley King or Jamie Carragher in the holding role leaves them a little out of their depth.

If Scott Parker isn’t in Steve McClaren’s next England squad, he never will be.

The Soccer Weblog

Thanks to loyal readers and new internet friends. Thanks to Bob and the gang for hosting and inviting me aboard. Thanks to an English squad that always engaged the imagination — if not with excellent play then certainly with sensationalism.

I may drop in for the next day to have a look at comments, but with this post, I am retiring my keyboard as England blogger.

I remain,

Yours,

Shawn

DAVID BECKHAM — Absent for long stretches and absolutely vital for key moments of 3 of the 5 matches; 5.5 overall, 7.5 for set pieces

WAYNE ROONEY — Never found his pace, never figured out a way around in the 4-5-1 system that Sven designed, then had his inner Gazza emerge at the worst possible moment; 5.5

PETER CROUCH — His specific skills were never properly used save for one moment against Trinidad; looked awful when asked to work outside the box; 5.5

STEVEN GERRARD — Smart, tireless and self-effacing, yet too often hobbled by tactics which required him to share space and duties with a player whose game mirrors, rather than echoes, his own; 7

FRANK LAMPARD — Much of what I say about Gerrard applies here, with the additional and painful note that he was in absolutely dreadful shooting form from Day One; could turn out that he is broken as a player; 5

JOE COLE — Early on, a note of promise, but he seemed to wear out as the tournament progressed; a non-factor on Saturday; 6.5

OWEN HARGREAVES — Despite negative response to his being selected, he emerged as a key player and the most potent midfielder; fought hard, never griped, made his penalty, raised himself in everyone’s esteem; 8

JOHN TERRY/RIO FERDINAND — I give them a joint grade because they played so well together at the back; for all the talk about England’s failure to score, let’s not forget that the side only allowed 2 goals in five-plus matches; 8

ASHLEY COLE — Fine defense (saved the day against Ecuador) but not enough service as a winger; again, I blame Sven in part for clogging the middle and taking away his route up the touchline; 7.5

PAUL ROBINSON — Never really tested much until the penalties, and he seemed to wither with each miss by his teammates; 7.5 for matches; 5.5 for penalties

AARON LENNON — for his brief moments of play, lively and determined; 7.5

MICHAEL OWEN — never truly fit; 5.5

Insufficient impressions to earn a grade: Michael Carrick, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Stewart Downing, Sol Campbell

Didn’t play: David James, Scott Carson, Jermaine Jenas, and, of course, Theo Walcott

Yesterday’s match was a battle of wills between two teams afraid to lose. Both sides featured egoistic foreign coaches, both had superstar players who’d grown up together and were likely participating in their final World Cup tournament, both had some hot young stars, both had underperformed in the tournament (England by a wider margin) and yet scraped through to the quarter-finals.

England seemed to struggle with the conditions, suffered an unfortunate injury with the loss of Beckham, and had a harsh but justifiable decision against it by a referee who, unfortunately, has a history of such calls against the side.

All of that would seem to bode well for Portugal, but they were unable to make a significant charge despite having an advantage of one man for nearly an hour of regular and extra time. Indeed, in the final 10 minutes or so of the second extra period, England — playing a ludicrous 4-4-1 with Peter Crouch up front — looked likelier to break through.

And then the penalties, and, well, you know the rest.

From my perspective, the match was generally played without violence in excess of hard play and without too much in the way of theatrics. The exception, of course, was the incident involving Wayne Rooney, Ricardo Carvalho and Cristiano Ronaldo, and as that’s being beaten to death elsewhere I won’t dwell on it. Suffice to say that the combination of the stomping — intentional or not (intent isn’t part of the rule, friends) — and the shouting and the shoving was a clear case of a player out of control and likely to continue so. A yellow would have been justified as well, but Elizondo, the ref, made his decision and I have no doubt that FIFA will stand by it. Not because they hate England, but because they can’t sanction the sort of combination of acts Rooney took.

But as I have said elsewhere, the blame shouldn’t be placed at the feet of Rooney or Beckham or even the trio of penalty-missers — Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher.

The fault is almost entirely that of Sven Goran Eriksson — and the FA who stuck by him irrationally despite his many failures, transgressions and indiscretions. The squad was poorly assembled, insufficiently trained and, it would appear, weakly inspired by its management.

To succeed in the tournament England would’ve benefitted from an additional speedy winger (Shawn Wright-Phillips instead of Jermaine Jenas), and two more forwards — or, rather, two forwards with international experience or even first-team Premiereship experience (Jermaine Defoe or Darren Bent or Andy Johnson in the place of the space-eater Theo Walcott, who, as I predicted from the moment his name was pulled from the hat, never saw one second of play).

That faster line-up — with more depth up front — could have pressed harder for goals (England managed only 6 in four matches, one an own goal) and played the second halves of matches at pace and not as if trying to jumpstart a dead battery. Yesterday, for instance, Lennon might have combined with Wright-Phillips or Defoe to create a true counterattack threat, not the ghastly marionette display of Peter Crouch trying to make dribbling runs in the open field.

But that wasn’t the side Sven assembled, and then Michael Owen got hurt (gee — who could’ve foreseen that???), and those options weren’t available any longer. So he had to rely on Sven’s analytic skills and ability to rally the troops. Lotsa luck. The FA had a chance to give the squad to somebody else in January — McClaren was already there, yeah? And who knows? That might’ve given the squad a sense of urgency that it never had under Sven — ‘let’s show the world we haven’t beaten ourselves’, that sort of thing. But no. Dazzled by his long-ago good fortune on the Continent, the FA stuck with him.

The squad were never truly on fire — and, indeed, never have been under Sven. Everyone who watches English football knows this. Why didn’t the FA?