|
|
BLAME IT ON DOWNING 12-10-06
Stuart Ward
Last night, Steve McClaren showed his true colours. He pandered to the press by dropping a young player simply because he had been made a scapegoat by the supposedly unbiased media. None of the staunch support offered to the overweight Scouse thug, no blind ignoring of the facts given to Stevie Me. Dropped, without a word as to why.
The performance from England was truly awful. There was no spirit, no fight. Switching to the much-heralded (in the popular media) 3-5-2 proved to be completely ineffective. The players still didn't care. Robinson appeared in the first half to be keeping England in the game. McClaren must have had a word with him at half-time to get him playing like the rest of the losers he was surrounded by. In the second half he was truly awful. The second goal was met with howls of derision in the pub where we were.
This may seem like a Boro-biased rant to some of you, and I am trying to avoid it, but it really needs to be said. England have fast turned into Boro of last season. McClaren is stifling our so called "superstars". His scientific approach to football kills off any freedom and passion that the players should play with.
Instead he puts emphasis on players sticking rigidly to their part of the pitch, no one player doing anything special, no one player performing better than the team. This leads to the kind of performances and results that we saw this week.
Now, back to Downing.
England ended up playing 5-3-2 last night, which is what is going to happen if you play defenders in midfield. There was zero width and zero crosses put into the box. But then the press would have us believe that Downing has never crossed a ball for England. I am not saying that Downing would have made a difference to the result last night, because I don't believe that anyone could have stopped us losing. I AM saying that he would have done better on the left of our midfield than Ashley Cole did.
The fact that the ever-media savvy McClaren dropped Downing because some over rated southern arses have decided that it is best to focus their bile filled columns on a young man who has performed no worse (and in Gerrard's case BETTER) than England's so called "six or seven world class players" (John Terry 2006) is simply ludicrous. I am writing this in an attempt to get people to see the facts.
Against Macedonia Downing made our two best chances with crosses from his left boot. How many crosses did the presses darling Mr Gerrard put in in that match which met their target and provided a chance. Not one. Yet it was DOWNING who was jeered from the pitch? I really fail to see the logic or fairness in that. Shaun Wright-Phillips came on and made one run with the ball in the twenty or so minutes he was on the pitch and the press were positively orgasming.
For someone to go from starting a match to not even being on the bench is bordering on madness. What kind of a message does that send to Downing? McClaren has just put an apple in his mouth, put him on a silver platter and fed him to the wolves. I now predict that Downing's confidence will be shot, and his performances for Boro will reflect this.
Surely McClaren knows Downing better than anyone? Surely he knew what this course of action would lead to. Not even on the bench? This then means that McClaren admits he made a huge clanger by picking Downing for the squad, yes? If he isn't going to play, surely this means he will not be in the next squad, yes?
These are all questions that need to be asked, but will not be. The press don't give a rat's arse about Downing. As far as they are concerned, all England's troubles are his fault. If they had a shred of moral fibre in them, they would have been asking those questions of McClaren last night but as it is, we will never know.
Joe Cole and his amazing step-overs must be wetting their pants. He has a gold plated road straight back to the left wing of England now. He will have been licking his lips at the sight of the press digging their claws into England's young left winger.
What really, truly amazes me is the lack of support Downing has received from the England camp. Whilst McClaren has been out in public fawning over out-of-form Rooney, no one has been out defending Downing. Surely it is the captain's job (and something I would expect from someone of John Terry's moral standing) to come out and publicly put his arm around Downing's shoulder. Tell the press they are wrong.
Last night marked the end of my support for England. The players are not fit to wear the shirt. Last night marked the end of any respect I had for Steve McClaren, and last night also marked the end of any remaining decency in the English gutter press.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE NEW HOLGATE MESSAGE BOARD
BACK TO STUART WARD INDEX
|
|
|
|
