McLaren Honeymoon Over Already?

Filed in archive England on September 7, 2006

Despite three wins from three games, ten goals scored and none conceded, people are complaining about Steve McLaren already.

England's 1-0 win over Macedonia wasn't particularly inspiring, but that's the way you get away win in places like Macedonia. Let's not forget that Sven had to settle for a 2-2 draw in from the same fixture. So why does it seem like the honeymoons over already.

On Five Live's 606, there were phone calls galore bashing young Stewart Downing. "He's only in the team because McLaren worked with him at Middlesbrough," was the refrain, which ignores the bagful of assists the lad got against Greece and the face that with Joe Cole injured, he's the most senior left sided player (ahead of Kieran Richardson).

I'm saving my Steve McLaren backlash for when he actually does something wrong.