Graphic: Cap that

If Scott Carson makes his competitive debut against Croatia tomorrow, Steve McClaren will have used 36 players during this qualifying campaign. After all the debate about too many foreigners, the biggest shock is to learn that there are that many English footballers, although, given that Kieran Richardson was one, you could say that we have been scraping the barrel.

Those home-grown players in the Barclays Premier League who remain uncapped must feel like lepers, given that the list includes the unremarkable talents of Stewart Downing and David Nugent. Then there are those we have long forgotten, such as Scott Parker and Kieron Dyer.

McClaren has managed to rack up 35 without giving any competitive action to Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young or Theo Walcott. One columnist yesterday called for the promotion of those young flyers, although, however much we crave some panache, presumably not all three at the same time.

Expert View

McClaren may say that he is still learning. I would say that he is still making mistakes yet he is hardly new to the job

Tony Cascarino

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BACKGROUND

• Robinson suffers crisis of confidence

• Crouch must respond to taller orders

• England’s case for the defence

• Fail or succeed, McClaren must go

BACKGROUND

• Ever-changing world of England line-ups

• Beckham the man Croats fear most

• Cole ‘rewards’ Israeli team-mate

• Pearce aims to show seniors how it is done

Thirty-five is a extraordinarily high number and reminds us that McClaren has had rotten luck with injuries and that many of those he has called upon have badly underperformed. Actually, it says three things, the third being that the head coach has not known his own mind.

At a time of so much contradictory evidence and inconsistency, he is not the only one. Only the other night I found myself putting forward a powerful argument for deploying Steven Gerrard at right back. But it is McClaren’s job to know the route he wants to go down, how he wants his team to play and to convince us that he knows best.

It appeared that he may never get that chance, but an unexpected reprieve has given him six months to work out a philosophy. England will be doomed next summer without one.

As my colleague Martin Samuel pointed out yesterday, McClaren went into the job with bright ideas about pace and penetration. He had seen first hand how England had laboured in the World Cup last year with no ability to counter-attack. His instincts were right, but sticking to them became a lot more difficult when he started losing matches and thousands of people were calling for his head. Which is why he went backwards and now England are likely to start against Croatia with the same five-man midfield who lost to Portugal in the World Cup quarter-finals.

McClaren has played safe, which is why only now - just as the qualifying campaign is coming to an end – are we discovering if our best goalkeeper has spent the past two years on the bench. It is why we are still considering not only who to play in midfield but how many. And why we are still not sure whether Wayne Rooney really can play alongside Michael Owen.

McClaren played particularly safe in going back to David Beckham, whose international career could be extended by six months if England avoid defeat against Croatia.

But safe is not going to win Euro 2008. Safe will not even get us past the quarter-finals. This is not to say that England have to play outrageously attacking football – there is a strong argument for packing the midfield – but they must be bold, they must have conviction. They must not resemble condemned men at the first sign of a penalty shoot-out.

McClaren’s England have shown fitful signs that they are capable of being forceful, but time is short. After tomorrow night, he will have only friendly internationals to prepare. If Carson plays, this will be his only competitive match before Euro 2008. And we will have seen even less of Walcott, Agbonlahor and Young.

And we need to see them because, so far, McClaren has not stumbled across a team capable of upsetting any of the big nations next summer. He has not developed a novel system and the disaster of 3-5-2 in Croatia means that the players are even more committed to 4-4-2 than the day he began.

So if sporting disaster is avoided at Wembley tomorrow, McClaren will have completed one part of his job, which is qualification, and, for that, we will be extremely relieved. But with regards to the second part – building a team capable of winning a tournament – he may have tried 35 players, but he remains at square one.

The full list of players used in competitive games is: Robinson, Brown, P Neville, G Neville, Richards, Bridge, A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry, King, Carragher, Campbell, Lescott, Carrick, Gerrard, Hargreaves, Jenas, Barry, Lampard, Parker, Beckham, Wright-Phillips, J Cole, Bentley, Lennon, Richardson, Dyer, Downing, Rooney, Owen, Defoe, Crouch, Johnson, Nugent, Heskey.

O’Neill more at home with Villa

We will never know for sure whether Martin O’Neill would have taken the England job – and the question appears hypothetical for the time being – but my belief is that he would have been reluctant to have left Aston Villa. His work in the Midlands is far from complete after only 18 months in charge.

O’Neill has begun to revive a moribund club who were going nowhere under David O’Leary and there are plenty of reasons to believe that he can turn Villa into the fifth best team in England.

When Randy Lerner said that he would not stand in his manager’s way if England came calling, he must have been privately praying that the opportunity would never materialise.

Now Steve McClaren looks set to continue and O’Neill can concentrate on stirring life into the former European champions. If he succeeds, as all wise judges expect, there will be no need for a discussion the next time the England job is available. O’Neill will be the man. Just not now.

Unless someone can explain exactly what it is for, here is an alternative to spending millions on the National Football Centre near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. Why not buy Astroturf to relay the hundreds of muddy bogs that pass as schools and park pitches?

The burning effect on the skin may make our budding defenders think twice about diving into brutish tackles, while the perfect surface leaves no excuses for miscontrol. Let us cover this green and pleasant land with plastic (or synthetic grass if you prefer). According to FieldTurf, one manufacturer, its product has “revolutionised the turf industry, and in many ways the entire world of sport”. That may be overstating things, but it can surely help our ten-year-olds to learn how to pass.