England-Austria: Michael Owen Out, Steve McClaren Must Follow

As an English football fan, I sometimes find myself wondering whether it's all one big joke—and waiting for Rory Bremner to pop out from behind the dugout shouting, "Got ya! Ha ha!"

That's how I feel after watching Michael Owen limp off the field during England's friendly in Austria, anyway.

And I doubt I'm alone in thinking that Owen's injury has to be the last straw for manager Steve McClaren.

McClaren could have given his youngsters a good run against Austria—and saved the first team for Wednesday's Euro 2008 match with Croatia.

Instead he opted to take a page out of Sven-Goran Eriksson's book in the midfield and up front—and it cost him another striker.

What's worse, England didn't even put on all that good of a show.

In fairness, the Three Lions did dominate the first 45 minutes, as Austria were mostly unable to get out of their half.

The hosts were unfortunate to lose goalie Jurgen Macho after he appeared to swallow his tongue—he was replaced by Rapid Vienna keeper Alex Manninger, who did well to palm over Owen's last shot of the match...and perhaps of the tournament.

After the fast start, though, England failed to impress. On an evening where the club could and should have won at least 3-0, they played lackadaisically—and that attitude infected their supporters around the country.

The common room here in my halls was empty at the start of the match (save for me), and held only three people at the end of it. At least 50 fans had turned up to watch the England-Russia game.

The hardworking Austrians pushed the high-profile English stars in the second half, showing real grit and determination. Austria's Rene Aufhauser was my Man of the Match—every time Frank Lampard touched the ball, Aufhauser won it back.

Speaking of Lampard—he had four shots on goal for the night, all off target. I'm aware that he's not a striker, but some of those misses were complete howlers.

I'm flabbergasted that Gareth Barry was dropped in favour of Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the first place—especially when it's been common knowledge for at least three years that the latter two don't work well together.

My final analysis?

McClaren may have won this friendly, but in doing so he lost another striker and exposed his team as lacking fire.

As it stands, Owen is out, England don't look to be far behind, and McClaren should follow both—for the sake of international football, if nothing else.