As expected, England looked no better than they have for years and showed exactly the same lack of invention or cutting edge as every other match under Sven or Steve McClaren. Made all the worse, of course, by players and managers blathering on before the match about how they were going to give a good ol’ English performance and show everyone how great they were.
Since that was a load of bollocks, here’s the aftermath:
“The surface was excellent but the dry surface made it difficult to pass the ball at a high tempo. When that is the case, it is difficult to break sides down.
– Steven Gerrard“A lot of people said this was going to be a very hard game. The atmosphere is intense, Israel have a very good home and a lot of people said a draw would be a fair result.”
– Steve McClaren“Anyone who thinks that the players don’t care about playing for England or that going out of a big tournament is water off a duck’s back, that we just go home and buy a nice car or a house and forget about it, is talking out of their backside.”
– Rio Ferdinand“There should be no pressure at all on Steve McClaren as it is the players out there… We are the ones out there and he could not have prepared us any better, he probably could not have picked a better team.”
– Phil Neville‘But we still have seven games to play. The ultimate aim is qualification and I am confident the players in our dressing room are good enough to get us there.’
– Steve McClaren“We have scored once in five games so you can see where the problem is.”
– Steve McClaren
We especially like Steve putting all the responsibility back on the players, recalled Phil Neville saying McClaren couldn’t have picked a better side (since he was in it), and Stevie G blaming a dry pitch.
One can only imagine what we’ll hear after next week’s display.