It's official: McClaren makes the worst start by an England manager

The goalless draw in Tel Aviv left Steve McClaren defending the worst start by any England manager. His eight-match record of won three, drawn three and lost two is by far the worst of the 11 full-time incumbents.

Kevin Keegan, Terry Venables, Graham Taylor and Don Revie were unbeaten after eight matches; Glenn Hoddle and Sven Goran Eriksson won seven and lost one; all except McClaren won at least four.

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The only other manager to lose two was Sir Alf Ramsey. However, Ramsey's team for those defeats, his opening matches against France and Scotland, was chosen in conjunction with a selection committee. He did not officially take charge until after those fixtures. McClaren may be influenced by Venables, but he, presumably, is picking the team.

England have scored only once in their last five matches, Wayne Rooney's goal against the Netherlands being the only strike in 494 minutes, but this is not their most barren spell. That came in 1981 when, for the only time in 135 years and 848 internationals, England endured four goalless matches in succession.

Between Glenn Hoddle scoring in the 28th-minute of a 2-1 defeat to Spain, and Terry McDermott striking in the 54th-minute of a 2-1 World Cup qualifying defeat in Switzerland, Ron Greenwood's team went 476 minutes without a goal. They failed to score against Romania (0-0), Brazil (0-1), Wales (0-0) and Scotland (0-1).

Leading the attack for three of those was Peter Withe, recently sacked as the manager of Indonesia. Other strikers were Trevor Francis, Tony Woodcock, Steve Coppell and Peter Barnes, while a midfield including Hoddle, Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins was as feted as the current one.

After the Switzerland defeat Greenwood pondered resigning but, despite losing in Norway (the famous match when the commentator Bjorge Lillelien ranted "Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana ... Maggie Thatcher ... your boys took one hell of a beating") still qualified for the 1982 World Cup finals. There may be hope for McClaren yet.

Managers' England starts

P W D L

McClaren 8 3 3 2

Eriksson 8 7 0 1

Keegan 8 4 4 0

Hoddle 8 7 0 1

Venables 8 5 3 0

Taylor 8 5 3 0

Robson 8 4 3 1

Greenwood 8 5 2 1

Revie 8 5 3 0

Ramsey 8 5 1 2

Winterbottom 8 6 1 1