snapshot no.1408

the aftermath of england vs croatia...

by yours truly.


let's face it. it's painful watching england play under steve mcclaren. and i'm not saying this just because he failed to take england to euro 2008. right from the start when sven-goran eriksson was given the boot and the football association replaced him with steve mcclaren, that was it. i did not have even a little faith for mcclaren. because even the blind could tell how incompetent he is, judging from what he achieved previously at middlesbrough, basically NOTHING. so why replace eriksson with someone even worse off?

an analysis of the match last night:

it took 14 mins for the whole world to see that england's 4-5-1 formation isn't working. the whole world but dear mr mcclaren. 2-0 down in just 14 mins in front of your home crowd is terribly dreadful. but mcclaren stubbornly stuck with the formation all the way till halftime when england were booed off the pitch.

mcclaren's just not bold enough to make changes before the half. but never mind about that, let's give him the benefit of the doubt, at least he made substitutions when the 2nd half started and changed back into a 4-4-2 formation to stage a comeback. fortunately, england did get 2 goals back and the score was tied at 2-2, enough to see england through to qualify. and what did mcclaren do? he revert back into his 4-5-1 or don't know what stupid defensive formation to 'play safe'. like hello? it doesn't make any sense does it? it's not like it's in the 90th minute already, it was in the freaking 75th minute! the formation's already not working, and you still want to employ it? besides, why do you defend a draw? in the past eriksson plays defensive to defend a lead. fine, although it's boring football but well at least you're leading. mcclaren defends a draw! in front of 88,000 of your home crowd! this 'playing safe' tactic is useless. shouldn't you go for a win instead? i always felt that the best form of defence is attack. if you don't wanna attack, be prepared to be attacked then. and that was exactly what croatia did. they scored another goal to put england out.

england lost. they fail to qualify for euro 2008. mcclaren refuses to resign and finally the FA sacked him. thank goodness.

well done mcclaren. england playing under you is just about as entertaining as watching a squirrel nibble on nuts. and thanks, for causing england's downfall. though i'm not too much of an england fan, at least not your england anyway. but still it's agonising to watch them play.

thanks mcclaren, for contributing to much of my fullframe graphics on ur incompetence on sportscenter asia. you've made me a very busy person at work today.

and for once, the whole of england was unanimous in mcclaren's sacking.

he totally deserves it. the only thing is that it came too late.

posted by ANDY NG @ 12:06 AM