England News

• Nickname:Three Lions
• Founded: 1872
• Manager:Roy Hodgson

• Ground:Wembley Stadium
• Capacity:90,000

Owen: Mac has tough job

15 Nov 2007 - 07:53:38

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England striker Michael Owen believes that managing the national team is a far harder task than any club job in the Premier League.

Owen has voiced his support for England boss Steve McClaren ahead of the friendly international in Austria, with the head coach coming under pressure as his side face missing out on the Euro 2008 finals.

"It is probably harder to manage England than any club," Owen told reporters.

"There is a lot of pressure involved and because the manager doesn't get to see the players as often as they would at club level, if you have a bad result, you have to live with it for a month or two, which must be really hard.

"If you have a good game, everything is great, if you don't you get criticised.

"We are a proud nation that wants to be competing in all the big tournaments.

"We are a major force in football. In the last dozen years or so we seem to get to every major tournament and then into the last eight.

"We could easily have gone on to win one of them, but there is such a fine line at the top and you do need that little bit of luck."