McClaren should leave Rooney out

Group E: One way and another, that was not a bad night for Steve McClaren. Before his own eyes and those of the English Football Association international board, Guus Hiddink was revealed not to be the omniscient Sun Tzu of football coaching.

And over in Lisbon, Luiz Felipe Scolari ended the evening by landing a left jab on the cheek of a Serbian player after watching his Portugal team surrender points at home for the second time in four days. As McClaren calmly shook hands with the defeated Hiddink, those FA blazers must have been thinking that perhaps they hired the right man, after all.

Now all McClaren has to do is figure out a way to tell Wayne Rooney there will be no place for him in the starting line-up when England return to Wembley to face Estonia next month. And then he will have to deliver the same message to Owen Hargreaves, to Frank Lampard and - if they recover their fitness in time - to old friends, David Beckham and Gary Neville.

With six points tucked away from two crucial games, six goals in the bag and a pair of clean sheets, McClaren must be rubbing his eyes at the wonder of it all. He deserves credit of course, particularly from his many critics who have questioned his right to the job of England's head coach, for reacting to adverse circumstances by making two extremely astute decisions.

First, he reacted to the injuries to Lampard and Hargreaves by inserting Gareth Barry alongside Steven Gerrard in the position from which he has been captaining Aston Villa under Martin O'Neill. Two excellent captains of big clubs together in central midfield seems a sound foundation.

Second, he refused to heed the claims of Everton's Andrew Johnson and Tottenham's Jermain Defoe to partner Owen when Liverpool's Peter Crouch was suspended for last Saturday's Israel match, instead courting ridicule by recalling Emile Heskey on the basis of his current form for Wigan Athletic and his familiarity with Michael Owen.

Amply rewarded, McClaren can congratulate himself both on his shrewdness and his luck. His recent successes will have given McClaren a measure of personal authority as he confronts the problems posed by returning players. But he will be acting from a position of relative strength.

Neville will surely be the easiest to placate, not least because, after such a long period out with injury, he's the furthest from match fitness. Beckham, too, has the excuse of sporadic recent activity to help him rationalise a place on the bench. During his time at Real Madrid he showed he was not above accepting such a decision and continuing to give his best.

Lampard will probably remind McClaren he scored England's only goal against Germany last month. But his long history of failing to perform in tandem with the undroppable Gerrard, is more than enough justification for inviting him to sit on the sidelines.

The only real injustice will have to be done to Hargreaves, so outstanding in the disastrous campaign in Germany, so professional in everything he does. Having established his niche in the team, he must now accept England have a midfield which has achieved enough in two games to deserve a further chance to test itself. Fate being what it is, his chance will come again.

And, finally, comes Rooney. Of course the €43 million Rooney is a better player than Emile Heskey. But he is not a better player alongside Michael Owen, whose three goals against Israel and Russia restated the Newcastle United striker's importance to the national team.

Rooney's own scoring record for England would be unacceptable in a less gifted player, but he has yet to compensate with the kind of contribution that brings the goals out of his team-mates. To leave out Chelsea's Joe Cole - after one humdrum performance in a position he has worked hard to master - and to put Rooney out on the left would be to tinker unnecessarily with a line-up that, as things stand, appears to have the right balance for McClaren's purposes.

• Guardian Service

Remaining Fixtures

Sat, Oct 13th- England v Estonia. Wed, Oct 17th- Croatia v Israel, FYR Macedonia v Andorra, Russia v England. Sat, Nov 17th- Andorra v Estonia, FYR Macedonia v Croatia, Israel v Russia. Wed, Nov 21st- Andorra v Russia, England v Croatia, Israel v FYR Macedonia.