Mark Lawrenson: Euro absence reminder of McClaren's disastrous reign

Jun 10 2008 by Mark Lawrenson, Liverpool Daily Post

SITTING back and watching the opening weekend of matches at this summer’s European Championship finals leaves you with one burning question - why on earth aren’t England here?

It seems ridiculous that England are unable to class themselves as one of the best 16 football nations in Europe but when you look back on the Steve McClaren era then you have to concede that his appointment proved ultimately nothing short of disastrous.

It’s not like there was just the one slip-up throughout England’s unsuccessful qualifying campaign – there were a number of bad results.

There was the failure to beat Macedonia at home or to get a point in Moscow, an inability to win in Tel Aviv and then blowing their chances in the final game at home to Croatia after the Israelis had handed them an unlikely lifeline.

While Europe’s big guns are now taking part in the finals in Austria and Switzerland, England’s players have gone their separate ways for the summer after a couple of low key friendlies which ultimately will mean nothing despite the victories against the USA and Trinidad & Tobago.

Those kind of games don’t really tell you much about your players and you couldn’t really say that new coach Fabio Capello had eradicated all the problems from McClaren’s tenure yet.

Four games into the Italian’s reign and I reckon that there are still more questions than answers although long-term I’d expect qualification for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa to be secured.

The football public back home in England would like to think that the rest of Europe and the finals themselves are ‘missing them’ due to their absence from the tournament but the truth is that there is little sympathy for their plight on the continent.

I’ve been talking to other journalists who are out here from various points across Europe and the general consensus is ‘tough – you don’t deserve to be here because you weren’t good enough’.

It’s not like this tournament is short of quality sides and the Germans laid down a marker of intent on Sunday night with their solid 2-0 victory over Poland.

Lukas Podolski has endured a difficult season at club level with Bayern Munich where he’s been injured but he announced himself and his Germany side to the tournament with a double strike against the country of his birth.

It would be hard not to score in a team like Germany though. I thought their midfield and forwards looked very good but their left-back and two centre- backs seemed average at best.

It’s possible that teams could get at them by attempting to peg them back but it’s going to be difficult for all of their opponents because Germany have got tournament football down to a fine art.

I was also quite impressed with Portugal, who opened with a 2-0 win over Turkey on Saturday night.

They looked fit and athletic but I’d have a slight worry that apart from Cristiano Ronaldo I’m not sure where their goals are going to come from against better opposition.

* Mark Lawrenson was talking to CHRISTOPHER BEESLEY