Short of starting with the first of the European Championship qualifiers, at home to Andorra, Steve McClaren could scarcely have had a less onerous introduction to international management. As he was quick to point out after last Wednesday’s 4-0 success, “You can only beat what’s put in front of you,” but he knows better than most that it would be dangerously delusive to draw “here we go” conclusions from a result against opponents who were very much in friendly mode.
McClaren, an unpopular appointment with the public, has done nothing more than buy himself the honeymoon period he might otherwise have been denied. Accepting these qualifications, however, it has to be acknowledged that Wednesday was the clear improvement needed to drag chins off the floor, which is where England finished the World Cup.
Some important players were missing, notably Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Joe Cole and Dean Ashton, who would have started had he been fit, but their replacements acquitted themselves well in a team in which everybody at last gave the impression that he knew what he should be doing. Simplicity has always been Terry Venables’s creed, and, having welcomed its high priest back into the fold, McClaren appears to be a willing convert. There were no square pegs in round holes this time, which was too often the way of it under Sven-Göran Eriksson, and, it must be said, at McClaren’s Middlesbrough.
The Greeks threatened only in the second half, by which time they had conceded four and English attention was straying to the first weekend of the Premiership. There were no surprises in McClaren’s starting 11, unless one counts the omission of Aaron Lennon, whose cameos were an uplifting feature of England’s sojourn in Germany. Those who were inclined to quibble with his exclusion kept their counsel after seeing Steven Gerrard take over from David Beckham on the right and display all the vim and vigour the erstwhile captain has lacked in his latter, languid years.
Gerrard is an established international, his myriad qualities well known. The revelation, not just in midweek but throughout England’s summer of discontent, has been Owen Hargreaves, previously maligned in these columns as the “bad pfennig”. The midfielder suffered for his jack-of-all-trades versatility until the fag end of Eriksson’s stewardship, shuffled from right-back to left midfield and various points between.
Advertisement
It is to the Swede’s discredit that he failed to identify this most energetic and intelligent of footballers’ best position. Quick over the ground and sharp in the tackle, the man was born to the hunter-killer role in midfield. McClaren is full of praise for Hargreaves, but the most compelling endorsement comes from England’s most experienced player, Gary Neville, who said: “We have been a bit ignorant about Owen. Everybody hasn’t recognised what a good player he is. He is playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, and we are ignorant about that and the way they use him. After that fantastic performance [on Wednesday] you can see how he is growing in confidence and playing to a level that is fantastic.”
Fantastic for England, but not so much for Neville’s club, Manchester United, who had been hoping to sign Hargreaves from Bayern Munich before his stock value rose at Germany 2006.
“We first enquired about Owen before the World Cup,” said Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday. “What he did in the tournament was a nightmare [for United]. I knew it would happen, it happens all the time.
“The boy wants to come to us so we hope to be able to do something.”
Hargreaves has cemented his place in the England team, so much so that McClaren might be prepared, in certain circumstances, to drop Gerrard or Frank Lampard. But could the two of them operate successfully in the centre of midfield? “It’s something we might try in the future,” said McClaren, “but not at the moment, not the way Hargreaves is playing.”
Advertisement
There are no favourites any more, nobody is indispensable. “At different times we might need different formations and different personnel,” the coach explained. “My job is to win football matches for England. It’s not about accommodating any individual, it’s about making the right decisions for the team. It is to pick the players I believe can win and to give them a game plan that they can follow. You could see that [against Greece], now we have to keep it going.”
The intention had been to start with Ashton and Jermain Defoe up front, but Ashton broke an ankle in training. His loss was Crouch’s gain: Liverpool’s preying mantis filled his size 12s with two more to take his tally to eight goals in as many internationals. “He is giving performances that are very effective,” McClaren said. “He gives us a different aspect that’s not easy to defend against. He’s not just good in the air, his touch and awareness are very good too.”
Talking in general terms, McClaren said: “The players have set a standard they have to maintain. You don’t win anything, or go forward, unless you’re consistent.”
All sound, sensible stuff. Everything in the garden rosy? Not yet, not by a long chalk, but it’s nice to be out of the fertiliser.