‘Steve McClaren had England supporters singing in the rain at Old Trafford last night, giving them belief in the future after the damp squib of the World Cup campaign. Owen Hargreaves was voted man of the match, but this was all about the manager of the match and McClaren left to a standing ovation. McClaren’s desire for the team to raise their tempo was wonderfully in evidence, with a hunger and pace rarely witnessed in England friendlies in recent years.’ -Henry Winter, The Daily Telegraph.
‘The decisions taken by McClaren were justified and that should aid him towards acquiring the status he seeks. Steven Gerrard, for instance, may not have given his very greatest performance but he appeared happy enough to inherit David Beckham’s position on the right and use it, intermittently, to tear into the middle.
‘Elsewhere in the centre of the field, Owen Hargreaves was outstanding. Fans who had scorned him made amends by voting him England’s player of the World Cup and will now be racking their brains for further compliments’ -Kevin McCarra, The Guardian.
‘It should be pointed out that Greece played as if they had been asked to produce the likely threat from Andorra in England’s opening European Championship qualifier on September 2, but, even against ramshackle opposition, this was exactly the sort of energetic, committed performance that McClaren had both promised and demanded’ -Matt Dickinson, The Times.
‘It was the first small step on a journey that has, history tells us, so often ended with England’s thwarted dreams, but for a manager whose appointment has been accompanied by so little optimism it at least bought McClaren time’ -Sam Wallace, The Independent.
‘[This] was a night when Gerrard and Lampard both managed to have an impact, liberated from the shackles of Eriksson’s World Cup caution.
‘In the months to come, McClaren will be presented with sterner tests. But at Old Trafford the burning light of fresh ideas was at least visible through the Manchester rain’ - an Ladyman, The Daily Mail.
‘McClaren will take pleasure from an entertaining display for a variety of reasons. For the fluency and intensity of England’s football and the commitment and desire that has so often been missing in fixtures like this.
‘For the way Stewart Downing performed on the left and Jermain Defoe responded to being omitted from the World Cup squad’ -Matt Lawton, The Daily Mail.
‘Nothing that England did at Old Traffordlast night could ever wipe away the frustrations of the World Cup debacle or take away McClaren’s share of Sven Goran Eriksson’s guilt.
‘But led from the back by John Terry, from the middle by Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard and from the front by Peter Crouch, Mac’s men proved that England do know how to pass the ball, play at pace and put awful opponents to the sword…there were reasons, at last, to be more cheerful. Now let’s see how the real stuff works out’ -Martin Lipton, The Daily Mirror.
From Football365.com
Sept. 19, 2007
