Now Is the Time for McClaren to Take a Risk

So, England face Germany tomorrow in a ‘friendly’ international and Steve McClaren faces a selection dilemma: most of his first choice squad are out injured.

The list is rather long: Steven Gerrard, Owen Hargreaves, Darren Bent, Sol Campbell, Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch, Gary Neville, Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King are all out. and Jamie Carragher has retired from international football.

Faced with this problem, I would like to see Steve take a risk or two and put a few new faces in the team.

Yes, I know — getting your first senior international cap against Germany is a tall order. There would be a lot of pressure. But it’s a friendly — the only thing at stake is national pride. And the possibility of a permanent berth in the squad if you perform.

Steve should be on the phone to Theo Walcott, Steven Taylor and Leighton Baines to see what they’re up to.

Sure, there’s the slight problem of a couple of Euro 2008 qualifiers coming up, where you’d want your first team fully fit, in harmony and firing on all four. But look at the other side of the coin: you might just find a face that lights up the team and gives it the confidence to go into the remaining Euro 2008 qualifiers all fired up.

You never know, it might put a bit of excitement back into English international football.