If England hits rock bottom, time for McClaren to go

Since he took over for Sven Göran-Eriksson last summer, Steve McClaren's England squads have been all thumbs. Action Images/Icon Smi

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After an awful week in international action, England finds itself in dire straits -- not a bad pun if you're a fan of 1980s classic rock, but not a good place for the national team.

To qualify for the European Championships, England needs to beat group leader Croatia next month and hope that Russia fails to register wins against Israel (a team that has nothing to play for) and Andorra (a country with a population of 72,000). This is a sequence of events less likely than Britney Spears having a family Christmas this year.

So what went wrong? Why is the national team of a country with the world's No. 1 club competition struggling for qualification? Pipe-smoking Team Limey donned its deer stalkers in search of an explanation, and the more we looked, the deeper-set the problems appeared.

Let's look at the game. England was arguably unlucky. Steven Gerrard missed an easy goal and Russia scored from an unjust penalty. The pitch in Moscow was turf, giving the game the air of a five-a-side pickup between the lads. The ball bounced high and players often needed an extra touch to control the ball. The play simply didn't flow.

Furthermore, after letting England train on a dry pitch, the Russians -- further escalating the continuing diplomatic crisis between our countries -- cheekily added tons of water onto the pitch shortly before the game to give the field a wholly different completion to what the players had trained on.

Despite that, one would still have expected England to win given the players at its disposal. But Wayne Rooney failed to get into the game (despite his awesome volley goal) and Michael Owen is still clearly not fully fit. Gerrard, playing through injury, has yet to show any real form this season; Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were anonymous on the wings, while Sol Campbell looked so concerned about not getting berated for making a mistake that he contributed little.

And we wish Paul Robinson had taken a leaf from Campbell's book. The Spurs stopper was once again error-prone, this time spilling the ball into Roman Pavluchenko's path for Russia's winner. How England missed John Terry, the brave backbone of the defense. Instead it had Rio Ferdinand lolloping lethargically.

And why on earth was Everton center back Jolean Lescott played at left back over experienced England left back Phil Neville? Russia saw the tactical error and piled down that wing like there was free vodka at the end.

But mine a little deeper, and you'll discover that the plot to this story was written in October 2006 when England drew 0-0 at home to Macedonia a few days before losing 2-0 in Croatia. And did the rot set in before that with the appointment of Steve McClaren, following the all-too-public and embarrassing failure to acquire the services of Luiz Felipe Scolari as England manager?

McClaren's previous career highlights were a Carling Cup win with Middlesbrough, mid-table mediocrity in the English Premier League and a 5-0 mauling in the UEFA Cup final at the hands of Sevilla. His appointment was seemingly based on him ingratiating himself to the Football Association establishment during his time as former manager Sven Göran-Eriksson's right-hand man, and jingoistic calls for a home-grown manager from the very same tabloid newspapers that now call for his head.

For McClaren, the end is near -- he has reached the final curtain. Bookmakers give England a 35 percent chance of qualifying; if it doesn't, his demise is certain. And yet, does this sorry tale extend further back? Top-rated coach Eriksson was unlucky to see his England side lose on penalties in the quarterfinals of both the European Championships and the World Cup, but overall, while results were decent, the England team rarely played to its full potential under his stewardship.

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