The new England kit, unveiled amid great fanfare this week, is described as “performance-perfected”, whatever that means. Certainly it is not a description too often applied to the national team in recent times and, after another display that left Steve McClaren facing catcalls at the final whistle, it was tempting to wonder whether it ever will.

It was not a worthless exercise, with McClaren taking the opportunity to try Ben Foster, Jonathan Woodgate and Kieron Dyer, but, as happens far too often under the England banner, the positives were outweighed by negatives. This was another evening when players of the calibre of Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were taught a lesson by the footballing aristocrats of Spain and when the arrogance and hype that often surrounds England was again shown to be hopelessly misplaced.

This was another low in a season that has brought embarrassment in Zagreb, and it could get worse. The assignment against Israel in Tel Aviv on March 24 is one that would be daunting for a team in form, let alone one whose confidence is plummeting after four games without a win and whose head coach, already seven matches into his reign, seems to be heading for the infamy directed at Graham Taylor during the disastrous 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Taylor was at Old Trafford last night as a radio summariser and he will have recognised some of the signs. He might have been more surprised to be greeted with a chant of “There’s only one Graham Taylor” by one diehard. Certainly he could not have imagined attracting such a response 14 years ago, but that is the thing about England managers; there is always someone else to take over and to invite the kind of scrutiny that led Bobby Robson to call it “the impossible job”.

Expert View

Coming up short, technically, is at the root of England’s problem. They do everything in a rush

Tony Cascarino

• More

• Post a comment

BACKGROUND

• No answers to Spanish inquisition

• Listless England are left with little to go on

• McClaren fails to come up with worthwhile solution

• Nearly men struggle for X-factor as Sven ghost proves hard to exorcise

Impossible is about right. McClaren selected 28 players in his squad for this match, among them John Terry, Owen Hargreaves and Wayne Rooney, three certain starters against Israel, fitness permitting. He was without Ashley Cole, Joe Cole and Michael Owen. Terry was fit enough only to be among the substitutes, Hargreaves merely grateful for the opportunity for some intensive training after four months out with a broken leg. Rooney pulled out with a back problem — one that is unlikely to keep him out of Manchester United’s home match against Charlton Athletic on Saturday — and suddenly McClaren’s team were unrecognisable from the one he had in mind a week ago.

The withdrawals gave McClaren the opportunity to experiment, but what did he learn from this match? What can an England head coach ever learn in the 76 hours between welcoming his players on a Sunday, a training session on a Monday and a Tuesday and bidding them farewell after a match on the Wednesday night? The window of opportunity, as McClaren would put it, is small, even before one begins to take into account the age-old problem England managers face when they try to field anything like their strongest team.

McClaren would cite the benefits of the time spent together on the training pitch, but he will also know, as all international coaches do, that it is nothing like time enough.

Performance-perfected? Unlike the performances that usually take place at Old Trafford, the most an international coach can ask of his team is for them to perform at all. International football does not lend itself to perfection. Often it barely lends itself to competence. And at times like this, a period that stretches back at least two years, it can make for a pretty depressing pursuit.

Foster did well enough but without making the save that would have led to demands that he replace Paul Robinson on a permanent basis; Woodgate was sound for the most part but turned inside-out by David Villa in the build-up to Andrés Iniesta’s goal; Phil Neville filled in admirably enough, as ever, but hardly inspired; Dyer and Shaun Wright-Phillips flattered to deceive; Peter Crouch had one of those nights he would prefer to forget; Joey Barton, disappointingly, was only given 11 minutes. Was it something he said?

Was it worth it? Will it ever be? Had England blown Spain away with a full-choice team, it would have been “only a friendly”. Yet with an experimental side, defeat is termed a demoralising disaster. Maybe it was a disaster. Maybe another embarrassment awaits in Tel Aviv, or maybe it will be partial redemption for McClaren. Either way, “performance-perfected” will almost certainly remain a distant, unimaginable dream.