England victories can rarely have been greeted with such despair as that which followed their 1-0 win over Austria last night. With Michael Owen suffering a thigh strain that will keep him out of Wednesday’s European Championship qualifying tie against Croatia, as well as Wayne Rooney, and with the fans calling for the head of Steve McClaren, all the signs point to a winter of discontent.
McClaren had to cope with being told that he was not up to the task even before he took the job as head coach 18 months ago, but the absence of Owen at Wembley could seal his fate, assuming that Russia drop points in Israel this evening – or Croatia lose to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – to give meaning to England’s final group E fixture.
The Newcastle United striker is likely to be out for at least a month after sustaining yet another injury on international duty, joining Rooney, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand on the sidelines for the match that will probably determine McClaren’s future. The head coach is considering calling an additional striker into his squad - Darren Bent, the Tottenham Hotspur forward, is the most likely candidate – after Owen limped off in the 34th minute.
“It was a strange one,” McClaren said of the injury. “It was his standing foot and he pulled his thigh and, unfortunately, he’s out for Wednesday. It leaves us short for strikers, but that’s football. We seem to be plagued with injuries at the moment.
“We’ll be going into our biggest game for some while without our two first-choice centre forwards and two first-choice centre backs. It’s a big blow, but you have to deal with it. There’s a possibility we’ll call a striker into the squad, but I think there’s enough in that dressing-room to get us through this game.”
The only positive on another desperate night for McClaren was the performance of Crouch, who scored his thirteenth goal in 23 appearances when he headed home David Beckham’s corner in the 44th minute.
After a stop-start season in which he has been left out of five Barclays Premier League squads by Rafael BenÍtez, the Liverpool striker has emerged as his country’s last remaining hope. With Jermain Defoe also short of match practice, Crouch could even lead the line on his own against Croatia.
“Peter Crouch is a handful for anybody,” McClaren said. “If we need to beat Croatia, we’ll only need one goal and we’re capable of doing that. We’ve got Crouch’s height and our midfielders are capable of scoring goals. We won’t need four or five. We’ve got the players.”
McClaren’s reign could be all but over this evening if Russia win in Tel Aviv and Josef Hickersberger, the Austria coach, described England’s potential failure to qualify for Euro 2008 as an embarrassment. “I hope for England and also for Austria and Switzerland [the hosts] that England against Croatia is still a very important match,” Hickersberger said. “Otherwise I’m quite sure that it will be embarrassing for England.”
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