JeremyP's Blog

Well I didn't actually. However, when McLaren took over I did voice my concerns. After all, he was in the management team in the last World Cup, so why would we expect England to suddenly be different?

McLaren dumped Beckham possibly rightly, possibly only to keep the ravening horde of the press sweet. The main reason to keep him out was because both Gerrard and Lennon play in more or less the same position, and both are better than Beckham. However, both of them are not available, so why not consider Beckham?

And 3-5-2? Well, let me say Mr McLaren, if the outside two of the 5 are both defenders (Ashley Cole and Gary Neville) then you are really playing 5-3-2. With a defensive midfielder like Carrick, you could even be playing 6-2-2.

Rooney has not been playing well, so why play him? Crouch is rubbish against a team with a proper defence.

Then MacLaren uses all three subs in one go which means that Ashley Cole can't be subbed when he is injured.

To think we could have had Martin O'Neil and we turned him down.