Basic instinct shows the folly of coach's chaos theory
Steve McClaren's best hope is to sacrifice ideas for instincts.
John Sadler
Throughout his considerable time attached to the England
football team Steve McClaren has reminded me of a ventriloquist's dummy
- particularly when, as the right-hand man, he sat alongside Sven-Goran
Eriksson. What do you think of it so far? Rubbish. And more often than
not, it was.
Even when he became the manager, the impression remained that he was dancing
to someone else's tune, responding to opinion or fashion, to voices other
than his own, that he pursued the coaching ideology to the betrayal of
his personal instincts and intuition. He appeared to be obsessed by systems
and formations. Diamonds and 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 and 4-4-2 which, inevitably,
produced a team at sixes and sevens. The England players became weary
of theory. Until now. Until the real McClaren stood up at the weekend.
England's triumph was not the measure of their three-goal margin in defeating
Israel but the fact that, for the first time since trouncing Holland in
1996, they looked like a proper team in which everyone knew his job and
actually relished doing it. No, I am not forgetting that 5-1 win against
Germany, which was a freak result if ever I saw one.
Something has happened to him in recent months, something refreshing and
profound. It is my hunch that the burden of the job which has transformed
most of its incumbents - adversely in the main - has driven him to trust
his better judgment, his basic gut feeling, like never before. After all,
this man was abused like none of his predecessors during one recent match,
howled out of the stadium by an appalling, foul-mouthed hate mob.
Maybe, just maybe, McClaren has thrown caution to the wind believing that
whatever he does, however he does it, the job is going to alienate him
from some sections of the public and media. If his theory has switched
from formation obsession to "sod it, I'll stand or fall by my instincts"
then there is some cause for optimism not only about England's prospects
against Russia tomorrow but for their overall chances of qualification.
In saying that, though, he now has to hold his nerve.
He has always struck me as one of those who regards himself more of a
coach than a manager and that could be dangerous, no matter what his assistant,
Terry Venables, might argue to the contrary. A coach who cannot manage
has far less chance of success than a manager who can coach a little:
yes, even in a game played by mollycoddled multi-millionaires, for it
remains an extremely simple game.
Injuries to several key players enabled the manager to change his line-up
but there was a newly discovered boldness in the decisions he made. Who
would have urged him to recall Emile Heskey, the striker who rarely strikes,
to lead the attack? Not me and not many others, yet Heskey reacted to
the award of his 44th international cap by performing like an international
player. Who would have believed that the "old" McClaren would
have had the courage to select Aston Villa's Gareth Barry rather than
Manchester United's Michael Carrick to understudy the injured Owen Hargreaves?
Same answer. The inclusion of Shaun Wright-Phillips was easier, given
the absence of David Beckham and Aaron Lennon, but he could have taken
a safer option.
The next 48 hours are crucial for the England team and their manager's
chances of survival beyond this qualifying group. Beating Russia is essential
for a far greater reason than persuading the Football Association that
it made the right choice in appointing McClaren without even interviewing
the current Russia coach Guus Hiddink. It is important that, despite all
the advisory voices from his inner circle, the puppet continues to pull
the strings. There will be temptations to recall Hargreaves, because modern
conformity demands a team has a "holding midfield player", whatever
that is.
There goes that theory malarkey again. Barry passed the ball as accurately
and consistently as any England player in recent years. And he passed
it forwards. This might be another flash in the pan, another false dawn,
but McClaren might be best advised to stick with his winning team on this
occasion. His gut feelings seem to be a darn sight more trustworthy than
his technical strategy and our stomachs have stopped churning for the
moment. He has been decisive, uninhibited and brave, and national indigestion
has found swift relief. Suddenly he has discovered the balanced team ethic
and the effect has been like Rennies from heaven.
, 10 September 2007
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