If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — why Steve McClaren should stick to his guns

September 13, 2007

Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Correspondent

Graphic: Why Heskey is better than Rooney

The best 45 minutes from England since Euro 2004 solved quite a few problems — particularly if your name is Steve McClaren — but it also raised some previously unthinkable questions. The most extraordinary of those is whether Emile Heskey keeps Wayne Rooney out of the team. Which feels a bit like saying that you will stick with Ugly Betty when Keira Knightley wants a night out.

We know it cannot be a crazy idea because even Alan Shearer was talking about it on the BBC last night. “I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but you have to ask if Wayne Rooney has a struggle to come back in for Heskey,” the former England striker said. Thousands of others will have shared the thought and wondered if someone had spiked their lager.

Expect the phone-ins to be jammed for weeks on this one, but while we are asking how Rooney gets back in, we should also be questioning whether there are instant returns for Gary Neville, David Beckham, Owen Hargreaves or Frank Lampard. McClaren is entitled to enjoy a crucial and restorative win before he sits down with his pen and paper, but many of the fans will be urging him to stick with a winning team. After all, it is not as though they are used to having one.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That is the easy way for McClaren to look at it. But the one area where that argument may be at its strongest is not in attack but midfield, where England have been given balance by Gareth Barry’s left foot.

Lampard’s goal threat will not easily be left on the bench against the weakest opposition and Hargreaves may be the wisest choice when Kaká needs man-marking. But Barry should expect to continue against Estonia and Russia in October for his sound distribution and stabilising presence in these past two matches.

Micah Richards, too, even if the rush to cast Gary Neville on to the scrap heap has been ludicrously premature. McClaren will want the Manchester United veteran around for the day Richards suffers the dip in form that is inevitable for someone of his inexperience. But Richards, for now, is first choice and no one should doubt that he is prodigiously talented.

It is up front where this debate hots up and what is indisputable is that Michael Owen scores more goals per game — 14 in 14 — when he has the battering ram of Heskey alongside him rather than a roaming Rooney. The statistical evidence appears overwhelming, but it is not that simple. There were plenty of teams who faced the Heskey-Owen partnership who were far from cowed into submission — just as there were teams at Euro 2004 who did not fancy Rooney and Owen in tandem.

Perhaps it is simply a question of riding a wave and McClaren will be tempted to persevere with Heskey and Owen as long as he senses that the team believe in them. And he can do that while perhaps finding space for Rooney — assuming he is fit — on one of the flanks.

Joe Cole was one of England’s least impressive performers last night, while Shaun Wright-Phillips needs to spend some serious time on the Chelsea training ground working on beating the first defender with his crosses. Neither did enough to be sure of keeping their place and, although Rooney may look out of place out wide, he has played to the side in United’s 4-3-3. Not that McClaren was committing himself to anything last night.

“We’ll reflect on things,” he said. “We have got to enjoy it, keep our feet on the ground and make sure that, with that performance, we’ve set a marker, a standard. We’ve got to maintain that.”

Defeat in Moscow must be avoided, likewise a late slip against Croatia. As McClaren said, no one should be getting carried away by two victories or by the idea that England have stumbled across the team who can challenge for glory at Euro 2008.

Things can change quickly — just ask Beckham, who was the returning hero a few months ago but spent last night nursing his ankle injury in Los Angeles. He has endured many twists in his career, but being talked about less than Heskey may top the lot.