'We'll be ready'
Friday, 13 October, 2006
Steve McClaren insists England will be ready when the time comes for their next Euro 2008 qualifier in Israel.
Steve McClaren insists England will be ready when the time comes for their next Euro 2008 qualifier in Israel.
McClaren has five months before the Three Lions face another competitive game following their 2-0 defeat in Croatia, but he is determined the job he started in August.
It was England's worst qualifying result for 13 years but the manager believes his players will learn from their experience and qualify for the finals in Austria and Switzerland.
McClaren said: "I think we can become a side which achieves things.
"We have to use the friendlies and really get into individuals and the squad, get into what wins and what will win, so that when we get to the qualification games in five months, the approach is different.
"We have learned from all the experiences in the last four games and will make sure we are going in the right direction.''
McClaren will now focus on watching as many different players as possible before naming his squad for the friendly against Holland, in Amsterdam, on 15 November.
McClaren said: "With my coaches, I have to find out the reasons why we lost and put them right.
"We will use the two friendlies effectively and maybe our approach will be different in some respects. The personnel will maybe have to be different.''
McClaren promised to look at some of the younger talent emerging in the country and performing well for Peter Taylor in the England Under-21s.
McClaren said: "We have to look at the young talent coming through and there's a lot of it. There are players in the Under-21s knocking on the door and we will be looking at them very, very closely.
"Getting them as a team is the biggest thing. We talked about playing as a cohesive team and we haven't achieved that yet.''
