Paul Robinson's goalkeeping blunders attracted most of the attention after England's 2-0 loss to Croatia. The real blame for the loss was heaped on manager Steve McClaren.
Robinson was off his line as Eduardo da Silva's headed lob beat him for Croatia's first goal in Zagreb on Wednesday, and he completely missed the ball when teammate Gary Neville rolled a gentle backpass toward him for the second.
The mistakes summed up England's dire performance against one of its main rivals in the race to qualify for the 2008 championship in Switzerland and Austria. On this form, England's won't get there.
The loss left England in a four-way tie at the top of its qualifying group. Because England is idle when its rivals next play on Nov. 15, McClaren's team could easily slip to fourth. Only two teams from each group qualify.
England's next Euro 2004 game is not until a visit to Israel on March 24, and McClaren faces a long winter of doubt as fans and the media debate whether he was the right man for the job.
Even the heavily criticized Sven-Goran Eriksson, the coach McClaren replaced after the World Cup, managed to get England to two World Cups as well as Euro 2004. His first and only loss in 24 qualifying matches came in his 22nd match.
McClaren's first competitive defeat came in Game 4 and his tactics are now open to question after he changed England's system and was forced to admit he got it wrong.
``We lost the game so obviously the tactics didn't work,'' said McClaren, who changed the tactics from the traditional 4-4-2 to 3-5-2. ``Criticism is part of the job. I know that. I've been around the scene for five years and I know what it entails.
``You pick a team, you pick the tactics, you pick the shape to win a game. If we win it, I accept the plaudits and, if we lose, I accept the criticism. We lost because of our own mistakes.''
McClaren selected a team of players who were out of form, especially striker Wayne Rooney, who hasn't scored since the opening day of the season and is now without a competitive goal for England since the Euro 2004.
Although Steven Gerrard was missing through suspension and Calgary-raised Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole through injury, McClaren selected replacements who lacked imagination and the result was that Croatian goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa had only one easy save to make.
England captain John Terry did not blame the coach or the tactics.
``We worked on the formation for nine or 10 days solid and the manager asked if we were comfortable with it,'' the Chelsea defender said. ``No one had a problem with it. We take the loss as a team. It's no one's fault, especially the manager's.''
The British media were scathing with their criticism of McClaren, Robinson and the team as a whole, with newspapers calling the stars ``spoilt rich boys'' and ``clueless failures''.
Some recalled that McClaren was not England's first choice to succeed Eriksson and suggested that, after Portugal's Luiz Felipe Scolari had turned the job down, the Football Association should have turned to Martin O'Neill, who did not have a job at the time and is now doing a great job with Aston Villa.
Former England striker Paul Merson said McClaren was wrong to drop David Beckham, who has not played for him in five games. He said the former captain, who has played 94 times for England, would have been ideal to have at least on the bench because of his experience, his passing ability and standout record in scoring from free kicks.
Robinson's two blunders in the second half stood out as examples of what went wrong for England. Otherwise, the Tottenham goalkeeper kept England in the game with two first-half saves and also a standout block only two minutes after Croatia had gone 2-0 up.
Robison also failed to make contact with Neville's back pass because the ball unexpectedly jumped as he went to kick it after hitting a hole dug out of the turf. Robinson blamed that on his rival goalkeeper Pletikosa.
``It's one of those things, there was nothing I could do,'' he said. ``I think the ball bobbled where their goalkeeper took his goal-kicks in the first half. ``You don't expect things like that to happen. I'd gone to kick the ball as usual and it wasn't there.''
© The Canadian Press, 2007
