Coach McClaren exploring new ideas

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MANCHESTER, England -- Coach Steve McClaren has told his England team he expects a much better performance against Macedonia at Old Trafford on Saturday than in their nervy 1-0 win over them last month in Skopje.

Though McClaren said England had defended well in their Euro 2008 Group E qualifier, the quality of the football was clearly not good enough.

McClaren said: " It was a great result...and certain aspects, like the defending, were very good. But we need to play better football."

The coach added: " When we go 1-0 up, we need to push and go for the second goal. We can't just sit back. It's been a criticism of us in the past and rightly so."

Having started his reign after the World Cup with a 4-0 friendly win over Greece, England, now ranked fourth in the world to Macedonia's 51st place, romped to a 5-0 qualifying win over Andorra before struggling in the former Yugoslav republic.

A Peter Crouch goal at the start of the second half proved decisive but England almost threw it away as they sat back in the closing stages.

"In the last 15 minutes we sat back too deep and we allowed pressure on ourselves," McClaren said. "We need to be better in those situations."

The desire for improvement, which will be helped by the return from suspension of striker Wayne Rooney, has led to experiments this week in training with a 3-5-2 line-up, instead of the usual 4-4-2.

"We have to look at different ways of doing things, introducing new ideas," said McClaren, who declined to say who his team would line up on Saturday.

"It's no secret we've had two sessions this week working on 3-5-2.

"I think it's a system we can go to, we've got the players to do it. I was very comfortable with what I saw -- and the players were."

Rubbished

The coach rubbished a newspaper report claiming that concerns among players about the new system had led to a meeting and raised the prospect of player power deciding England's tactics.

"I can categorically say now the players did not have a meeting, the players do not pick the team. I, along with the coaches, pick the team, the tactics, the formations and the game plan.

"We are trying to work together towards this (game) and I hate anything that hampers preparation for my team. And reading a headline and a story which was totally false has hampered that preparation."

England's qualifying campaign continues next Wednesday in Croatia.

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