International Friendly; Wednesday February 7, 2007

England 0 Spain 1

England: B.Foster, G.Neville (M.Richards 64), R.Ferdinand, J.Woodgate (J.Carragher 64), P.Neville (S.Downing 74), S.Wright-Phillips (J.Defoe 70), S.Gerrard (G.Barry 45), M.Carrick, F.Lampard (J.Barton 78), K.Dyer, P.Crouch.

Steve McClaren made no bones about dismissing this friendly as basically meaningless afterwards. In a way he's entitled to. This game does not matter as much as the one coming up against Israel, he did have a couple of good players missing (well, Rooney) and it was only a friendly.

Of course McClaren was happy to take all the adulation when we whipped a Greece team that simply wasn't trying early on in his tenure in a friendly but I suppose that's to be expected.

It's hard to accept that games against nations of the stature of Spain aren't extremely important whether they are friendlies or not, however.

The victory over Argentina early on last season was the brightest moment in the recent history of the national team even if it appears to have been the best the so called golden generation of English football can provide. This current squad desperately needs a similar sort of boost.

The limp end to Sven's reign appears to be heading for a new blandness and ineptitude under Steve McClaren.

Nobody should really complain, however. The mood of the nation was to have an English manager after the Swede and we simply couldn't have gone with Big Fat "Do You Know Who I Am" Allardyce.

So we are stuck with Steve.

So far his tactics have been truly baffling, he has done nothing to bring the best out of his big players and we are further away than ever from a settled side and formation.

We also cannot score for love nor money.

Not a great start and does our inspirational manager have what it takes to sort out the mess he is creating?

Basically, no. McClaren's only hope is that his big players (well, Rooney) can do it for him.

Exactly like his predecessor McClaren does not know what to do to make things better. He is just hoping one or two special talents can make up for his own inadequacies.

It's one thing coming out afterwards and moaning about the injuries he has suffered (and by the way Steve when you tell everyone that you're not going to make excuses your next word should not be "but") BUT he is supposed to be the best manager we could find to do this incredibly high paid job.

Surely we are entitled to expect someone who can cope with a few injuries and still put out an England side capable of playing some decent attacking football in a formation we can easily understand and to some sort of pattern.

There are no patterns emerging within the England team under Steve McClaren. There are no areas of the pitch where you feel progress is being made or understandings being formed between individual players.

Nothing has happened to suggest England are a team rather than simply a set of expensive spare parts.

This is basically what McClaren is there to do.

All England really had to offer here was five minutes of robust attacking play at the start of each half. Without a real gameplan or structure to this attacking, however, it soon fizzled out and then the players were simply left vainly hoping that something would happen out of the blue.

Wishful thinking against most international opponents these days.

The focus of the early first half pressure was the right flank where the lively looking Kieron Dyer was eager to drift to link up with Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Within a minute this pair had won a corner and then a quick throw in down the same flank gave Michael Carrick a shooting opportunity and his rasping drive was only parried by Iker Casillas.

The keeper then made a superb block to deny Dyer from the rebound but the England man was offside by this stage in any case.

This early storm was weathered and when England found their early pace and energy had not been enough to destroy Spain they were pretty clueless as to how to open them up.

The visitors were almost as lacklustre although there was far less onus on them to make the running in this fixture. David Villa did smack an effort into the side netting before Fernando Morientes missed the best chance of the first half on 18 minutes.

Morientes was expertly set up by Angulo but having calmly dummied Gary Neville into the next postcode he sent his attempt on goal into orbit.

Kieron Dyer continued to be England's most willing and intelligent runner with Wright-Phillips offering glimpses of promise but there was a conspicuous lack of end product and craft from the white shirts.

Wright-Phillips instigated one move which saw Phil Neville put in a decent cross which only received a feeble header from Peter Crouch.

Crouch then reminded everyone of his presence with a series of infringements, both offsides and fouls coming equally naturally, while Frank Lampard was worse than normal in his super-sized England shirt.

We'll never drop The Lamp but we might as well do as play him virtually on the left of midfield. Plain stupidity.

Maybe Frank will just give up the ghost himself. It was being shunted into that position that persuaded Paul Scholes that there were better things to do than bang your head against a brick wall in an England shirt.

Personally I think the nation at large has to take some of the blame for the ongoing misery of trying to solve the Gerrard/Lampard debacle.

So much fuss was made of the fact that they couldn't play together that they've both been shifted here, there and everywhere in an attempt to find a solution.

Looking back the best they've ever really played was when they were playing together in the middle and we just accepted that once or twice we might not have anyone tracking back.

Back to the limited action and Angulo smacked a shot miles wide before England fashioned their best chance of the half.

Gerrard drove forward down the inside left channel before sending a superb pass with the outside of his right foot into Crouch's path to the right of goal.

This was a fine chance but the shot back across goal was horribly scuffed and bobbled away without causing alarm.

The 58,000 present were probably already wondering whether they should have bothered as the half time whistle sounded.

Half Time: England 0 Spain 0

Gareth Barry came on for Gerrard at half time and while this gave a more natural balance to the side it could hardly be expected to make a huge improvement.

England set off hammer and tongs again with Dyer and Wright-Phillips combining to win a deja vu sort of corner from which Barry had half a chance but his shot was high under pressure.

Another right wing foray ended with Gary Neville being played into a great position down the byeline but his cross was cut out by Pablo at full stretch before it could reach any intended target in the middle.

Again this pressure was of all too brief a duration and Spain began to show better quality in possession across the midfield.

The introduction of Iniesta as a substitute on 56 minutes suddenly brought an increased urgency to the visitors' play.

Villa brought the first real save out of Ben Foster with a stinging drive from just outside the area which needed a subbuteo style save from the England debutant to repel.

Moments later, however, Foster was breached.

Jonathan Woodgate had been in danger of giving England something of a plus point on the night but he was suddenly, dramatically and conclusively bamboozled down the left hand side of the box by Villa.

Ferdinand got the slightest of touches to the centre and the ball landed at the feet of Iniesta towards the right hand angle of the England box.

Iniesta let the ball drop then arrowed a drive beyond Foster that clipped the underside of the bar on its' way in giving the goalkeeper no chance whatsoever.

The rest of the game degenerated into a procession of substitutions which only really served to add to the general confusion of the England performance.

The Manchester City pair of Micah Richards and Joey Barton offered a couple of moments of promise but were with their teammates in being unable to achieve anything concrete.

Jermain Defoe slammed a volley miles over from a Crouch knock down and the lanky buffoon had time for one more mis-hit attempt before the final whistle signalled an end to a dreary game and widespread booing from the crowd.

Totally justified reaction and one that is becoming far too frequent.

Being England guarantees you nothing in international football. If the players and, more importantly, Steve McClaren do not start proving themselves of international quality very soon we will not only not win Euro 2008, we won't even qualify for it.

Full Time: England 0 Spain 1

England: B.Foster 6, G.Neville 5 (M.Richards 6), R.Ferdinand 5, J.Woodgate 5 (J.Carragher 4), P.Neville 4 (S.Downing 3), S.Wright-Phillips 5 (J.Defoe 3), S.Gerrard 5 (G.Barry 4), M.Carrick 5, F.Lampard 4 (J.Barton 5), K.Dyer 7, P.Crouch 3.

Star Player: Kieron Dyer

Don't get excited, we're not heralding the start of a glorious, all conquering international career. Kieron was just more industrious and bright than his "Dyer" colleagues and did enough to suggest that, injury permitting, he will be a useful squad member over the next few years.