I think MacLaren's failures lie not so much in selection (if Carson had had a good game, it would have been a 'brave and inspired move'), but in the inability to inspire confidence/ panache in his team, whoever is playing. That's what someone like Mourinho does so brilliantly.
I think he's useless in both aspects. You can't see someone like Rooney coming into the setup from a week of training at their club under Ferguson's eye, and then having to take orders from someone who's enjoyed minimal success at club level and earned most his money as an assistant manager, and tactically he's
completely inept.
Last night offered up so many questions (though they only emerged after the laughter; I had no particular desire to see us go through). if you're going to change keeper and you have a friendly the weekend before, why not give him a game in that? Why play 442 in the friendly and then change the system the minute Owen gets injured, when it's
clearly more beneficial to the team to keep the shape and sub in Defoe? Why, the minute Croatia scored their third, did he take off our best midfielder on the night to throw on another striker and kill the team's shape?
And the worst one: why is a team full of players so good at club level unable to play with any patience or composure the minute they concede a goal? The last fifteen minutes England literally did nothing but boot the ball over the top as hard as they could, and Croatia couldn't have had it easier. I think everything about English football needs to be ripped up; the attitude, the demand for instant results, the tactical stubborness (this 442 or death deal is one of the main things that hold the team back,
especially when the idiot commentators and media support it), the calling for players' heads the minute they don't play well... The whole thing needs a revamp; a six year plan type deal where we build around a new core of young talent (the backline is fine, but Cole and Rooney aside, I'd keep nothing from there up), encourage more players to move abroad and pick up the sort of pedigree Hargreaves has, and give these players time to learn each others games inside out until we finally have an international team that plays like one. It'll never happen though.