England v Israel: Two games to save McClaren's job

Lampard's injury is the latest example of football fates conspiring against the head coach – but he remains bullish

England's players must put in a good performance to take the pressure off their manager

Positive and optimistic man that he is, England's head coach, Steve McClaren, may just be starting to believe that the football fates are conspiring against him. Hardly had he finished extolling the virtues of Chelsea's Frank Lampard on Friday and then taken lunch in a favourite Yarm restaurant than he was suffering from the indigestible news that Lampard had been added to the list of those likely to miss the forthcoming double- header against Israel and Russia that England must win to maintain a realistic chance of reaching next summer's European Championship finals.

"He's scoring again and I think he's added something to his all-round game for England," McClaren had enthused only a couple of hours earlier. "He covered every blade of grass at Wembley against Germany, putting tackles and challenges in. His overall game was better, he got forward, he scored, he created. That's the kind of thing we need from Frank Lampard."

Now somebody else must supply it, which will mean persuading Liverpool's manager and medical staff that Steven Gerrard can have an injection and play with a broken bone in his foot just as easily for his country as his club. But doing so on Saturday against Israel and again four days later, with Liverpool then facing an away game the following Saturday morning and a Champions' League trip to Porto three days afterwards, will be stretching good sense as well as Rafa Benitez's goodwill.

"We've got something firmlyin mind which we believe will win the game against Israel," McClaren had said. It would certainly have involved Lampard, whose inclusion might have allowed Gerrard some much- needed healing time, solving the old dilemma of whether the pair can dovetail in midfield with Owen Hargreaves dropping anchor behind them. Now Gerrard may have to bite the bullet and Benitez bite his tongue in the national interest.

McClaren will do well to put a positive gloss on it all in his next media appearance, on Radio 5 Live this morning. At lunchtime on Friday he had been complimented on appearing so relaxed ahead of two games that could cost his job and reputation, responding: "I've been looking forward to it. We can have friendlies but we don't gain points from friendlies. You make substitutions, the opposition do, you're looking at different things. These are the big games. It's like at club level, Fergie used to say, 'I want to be in contention in the last 10 games, that's when it matters'.

"That's exactly what we've done. We've had seven games and we're in contention. We can qualify, it's up to us and now we have to deliver. That's a situation I like and I want the players to relish it. Yes, there's pressure, but these players are used to it, they play Champions' League quarters and semis and finals. This is why we're in it, for these big games."

Even with the manager's job on the line? "It's not a consideration, not an option to even look at. I've had many experiences, lots of games with United and Middlesbrough where you have to win, cup finals and semi-finals. This is one of the great things about the job."

Merely being "in contention" with five group games to play was hardly the nation's expectation when McClaren's reign began 13 months ago. Nor was fourth place in the table, which will only be marginally improved by victory over second-placed Israel, who sit three points ahead. Croatia, the leaders, and Russia both have home games on Saturday that they ought to win, against Estonia and Macedonia respectively. On Wednesday week, as Guus Hiddink's Russians visit Wembley, Croatia will be playing Andorra, after which they should have 23 points and be virtually qualified. Indeed, if they are home and hosed before coming to London for the final group game in November, it will be to England's advantage.

But it is the two meetingswith Russia that seem increasingly certain to determine both who else goes through and McClaren's fate. He said: "All we've got to do is concentrate on what we can do. Our ambition is to go out and win every game. I think we have to win our home games, but there are going to be many twists and turns.

"When you set a points target, you'd say a point in Israel was a good point. A bonus would be to win, and we should have won but we didn't. But it was important to win our home games against these teams and now we've an opportunity to do that. Israel are a good team, they've got good results since then and they'll be coming here very confident. But I believe they'll come with a game- plan to frustrate us, like they did at home; 11 players behind the ball, pack the penalty area and make it difficult for us to score."

Others remember the match in Tel Aviv last March rather differently; for some poor finishing,with Andy Johnson ineffective as Wayne Rooney's partner, and some nervous defending early on, notably from Rio Ferdinand and Phil Neville. Johnson now hopes to replace Alan Smith as Michael Owen's partner, while Rooney frets, tantalisingly close to fitness.

Someone, somewhere leaked the suggestion last month that Ferdinand had "two games to save his England career", to which McClaren's response was that he "has the potential to be one of the best centre-halves in the world". It is time, after 60 caps, to translate potential into something more solid, though Ferdinand will reasonably want a more confident goalkeeper behind him than Paul Robinson looked against Germany.

Watch England against Israel next Saturday on BBC1, kick-off 5pm