Was Sven that bad?

Now that Steve McClaren has gone, the time has come to reflect on some glorious ineptitude. Yes, I am referring to the players, but the manager has also made some clangers too. Back when we had Sven in charge, I thought he took some unfair stick, and when McClaren took over it seemed like a step backwards. A few highlights of Steve McClaren's reign:

1) Dropping David Beckham. Desperate to make his mark, Beckham went from England captain to not in the squad at all. A case of listening to the press, or just poor understanding of the fact that goals tend to come from quality passes? Either way, a catastrophic mistake.

2) Playing Scott Parker in a competitive England match. Let's remember, at this point Beckham still wasn't considered good enough for a place in the squad, so how does Parker get in?

3) Playing Joey Barton. OK, it was only a friendly, but there can be no excuse.

4) Managing to push Jamie Carragher into retirement - a quite amazing achievement, and McClaren was made to pay after injuries to Terry and Ferdinand.

5) Not sorting out his goalkeeping position, culminating in the picking of Scott Carson for last night's vital match. How is Robert Green not even in the latest squads?

So going back to the Sven theme, how does McClaren compare? Well he's worse, far worse. In fact, in terms of losing percentage, he's got the worst record of England managers at 29%. Sven was equal second best in terms of avoiding losses, along with Alf Ramsey, losing 15% of matches. Only Terry Venables record is better in terms of loss percentage.

And Sven's win percentage? 60% - the equal 2nd best win percentage with Ron Greenwood. Top of the list are Alf Ramsey and Glenn Hoddle - believe it or not - on 61%. This compares to McClaren's 50%.

So Steve McClaren may be a nice guy, but unfortunately he's not the man for the job, as proven by his selections and, consequently, his results. I'd love to see Jose Mourinho take the job but I'm not sure how it would go - he thrives on close relationships with his players so how would he cope with only seeing the players occassionally? Unless another top quality alternative emerges, and there are none from the UK, it could just be worth a shot....unless we ask Sven back? :-)

Unlucky Scotland

There is just no way that the "foul" that led to the second Italy goal was a foul against the Italian. 'Nuff said.

Move over Abramovich

This is incredible - a football community website taking over a football club. It will be interesting to see how they go. Each of the 20,000 MyFootballClub members have paid £35 to take over Ebbsfleet United, and they will now vote on player selections and transfers!

Goalkeepers who foul

Not sure if I will be in a minority of one, (it won't be the first or last time) but I thought Owen had a definite penalty turned down against Reading. I don't support either team and have no reason to be biased in any way, but it's not the first time that I've wondered why goal-keepers get away with obvious fouls.

Anywhere else on the pitch, if the player knocks the ball past their opponent and gets taken out in their attempt to chase the ball, it's a foul - no questions asked. In the box, suddenly it's apparently important whether the attacker would have got to the ball before it went out - why? If you are fouled, you are fouled, irrelevant of how far away the ball is. And the keeper's momentum is seen as an excuse - well they shouldn't charge out as quickly as they do then should they? - that is their own risk to take. Owen's looked like a definite penalty to me.

Titus Bramble

Newcastle fans, despite their defensive woes, will no doubt be happy that Titus Bramble finally left the club. The only susprise is where he ended up - Wigan. No Premier League team in their right mind would want to steady up their defense with the inconsistent Bramble. The poor guy needs to be put out of his misery in the Championship at best, if not the 1st or 2nd Division.

Bruce - a whinger?

Steve Bruce seems worried about Gary Lineker's criticism of him as a whinger - there seems little defence for him though! He's argued against decisions that are clearly right, as demonstrated by TV replays, one too many times. It's one thing to be emotional, quite another to ignore the facts.

Yesterday, Bruce got the win he needed though, with Carson Yeung watching, and waiting to meet the manager afterwards. At the end of the game Mr Yeung stretched out his hand to shake co-owner David Sullivan by the hand, only for Mr Sullivan to walk away without even turning to look at him...troubled times ahead perhaps. Bruce though, did himself a few favours with both a win, and some sensible post-match comments.

Team for Russia

A fairly good performance from England today, although not exactly earth shattering. Now it's all about the Russia game. Given Ashley Cole's injury, it's a little tricky to work out who will start on Wednesday, but I'm going for:

Robinson
Richards
Terry
Ferdinand
Shorey
Gerrard
Barry
Wright-Phillips
Cole
Rooney
Owen

I hope McClaren doesn't try and change the formation....fair enough if he prefers someone else at left-back to Shorey, but I hope he keeps the general structure the same. That means leaving Lampard on the bench to start with.