ENGLAND should hammer mediocre teams like Greece
Under Sven, that didn't happen.
But England thrashed Greece in a friendly at Old Trafford with thumping goals by John Terry in 12 minutes, Frank Lampard in 30, and Peter Crouch in 35 and 42.
The first goal was typical English football : purposeful, workmanlike, effective. A Lampard free-kick into the box, Crouch's header was punched out, Downing headed across to Terry , who nodded in.
That is what we are good at. We can knock the ball around and put it in the box. George Graham would have loved that goal and so would Jack Charlton.
Unfortunately, that style tends to exclude Jermain Defoe.
But Defoe did well to get the ball on the left from Lampard, beat his man cleverly, and play a sweet return ball through for Lampard to score. Intermittent caps from Sven usually set Defoe up to fail.
But keep the 4-0 in perspective. Greece are an average side who failed to qualify for the World Cup in a group that included Ukraine and Turkey.
MOSTLY, football is a team game where you need shape. Sven's England never had much shape because the coach was a groupie who was in awe of big names. Now, too late, we glimpsed what England could have been in the World Cup.
Interestingly, we did not miss Red Card Rooney at all.
One of the $64,000 questions is : can McClaren make Rooney a more disciplined and productive player ?
My guess : Not while Sir Alex is still encouraging Rooney to intimidate opponents, as Roy Keane did for a decade.
The game reminded us that the Swede gave us a Sven-slow England, a negative style that did not play to our strengths as a nation.
As thousands of us said, it ain't rocket science. A good holding player is like a big rock in a river that allows water to flow either side.
With Hargreaves there, Rio Ferdinand can break past him into midfield to give England an extra man, and Gerrard can roar around the field like the gladiator he has always been.
The first time Lampard got into the box, he scored with a shot that hit the blocking foot of the last defender and looped up over the keeper, who was kneeling and expecting a left foot shot across him.
England played with energy and tempo, and Gerrard, the greatest tempo player we have, was a powerhouse, despite sloppy moments early on.
HARGREAVES made one great tackle on Samaras at 3-0.
English fans needed a tonic and this game provided it.
It's just a shame that we are apparently still paying Sven £13,000 a day till he gets another job.
IN DUBLIN, Robin van Persie scored the fourth goal in Holland's 4-0 slamming of Ireland, who were without Duff and Robbie Keane. Poacher Huntelaar scored two, Robben one
FIRST MORNING back from holiday, I checked in with my gambling greengrocer. He said the best bet of the night was more than 2.5 goals in the England game.
Next best, Holland to beat Ireland.Third best, France to win in Bosnia. They did by 2-1 but I backed them to win by two goals, so I only won half that bet.
ENGLAND: Robinson (Tottenham); Gary Neville (Manchester United), Terry (Chelsea), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Arsenal); Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Lampard (Chelsea), Downing (Middlesbrough); Defoe (Tottenham), Crouch (Liverpool).
Subs used: Kirkland (gk, Wigan) for Robinson, h-t; Richardson (Manchester United) for Defoe, 69; Lennon (Tottenham) for Downing, 69; Carragher (Liverpool) for Neville, 79; Bent (Charlton) for Gerrard, 79; Bridge (Chelsea) for Cole, 81.
GREECE: Nikopolidis (Olympiakos); Antzas (Xanthi), Dellas (AEK Athens), Katsouranis (Benfica), Fyssas (Hearts),; Vyntra (Panathinaikos), Zagorakis (PAOK), Karagounis (Benfica), Giannakopoulos (Bolton); Samaras (Manchester City), Charisteas (Ajax).
Subs used: Lagos (AEK) for Fyssas, 29; Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt) for Ansaas, h-t; Basinas (Real Mallorca) for Zagorakis, h-t; Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt) for Samaras, h-t; Salpigidis (PAOK) for Giannakopoulos, h-t; Anatolakis (Olympiakos) for Dellas, 65.
Referee: W Stark (Germany).