The Overlap
Steve McClaren on Man Utd ’99 Tactics, Managing England & More | The Overlap Breakdown
13 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Okay, we begin. Steve, welcome and thank you for coming on the Overlap Breakdown.
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on and yeah, today we're going to speak about everything in your career, what you've done, the size of your CV, some of the best stuff you've done and yeah, we just had a little warm-up chat just to get started but I really wanted to ask you, I was thinking about last night what the best way to open it, open this up with was and I really wanted to say to you, when
When you start coaching, what did you want to gain from that? Why did you do it?
Chapter 2: What inspired Steve McClaren to start coaching?
It's a great question. I fell into it accidentally. I'd been doing my coaching badges while I was playing. What I was thinking about when I stopped playing was something down the business line. And I'd done my coaching but never expected to get an opportunity and all of a sudden I got injured.
The manager at the time, I think it was Brian Horton, said, look, youth team, reserve team, they've got no coach at the moment while they're injured. Do you want to coach the team? Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. So, yeah, I remember one Saturday, first Saturday, we're playing Crystal Palace, seven o'clock. I'm in a 16-seater van. I've got a physio volunteer who's driving the van and I'm at the front.
I've got 16 kids behind me. I'm going around the M25 to Crystal Palace. Puncher on the M25. Pull over. Kids go, good job the lad knew how to change a tyre. So he changed a tyre, got it back, got around Crystal Palace, got prepared for the game. First half, I remember it to this day. First half, nil-nil. And we had a left winger, rapid, really quick, Chrissie Allen.
And that was Oxford, obviously, Chrissie Allen. And he was rapid, but he kept trying to do little tricks. So I said after, Chris, look, keep it simple, son. As soon as you get it, just knock it. No one's quicker than you. I said, and then cross it. That's all you've got to do. Oh, and when the ball's on the other side and he crosses it, You'll be at the back post and score a goal.
That's your job, okay? So just after half time, he gets the ball. No dribble, just knocks the ball down the line. He was so quick. Left foot cross, right winger, far post, goal. 1-1 or 1-0. They equalised. Minute to go. Right winger. Cross the ball. Far post. Chrissie Allen's there. Taps it in. We win 2-1. And that was it. That was the moment.
You got the click.
That was the moment. You'll know it as a coach yourself. All of a sudden you go, this is it. Gosh, I like that. What I like, I just like the camaraderie of the team, being in charge of that, giving advice to somebody. They're taking it on board and making them a better player. And the thrill then of that going into winning.
was the ultimate because as a player, every Saturday you win or lose or draw, elated, disappointed, whatever. So you've always got that up and down and coaching was the same. So it gave me the same kind of buzz and feeling. And what I've always been is a learner. So even I do all my badges, I did business courses. So I wanted to learn about everything. So I thought, wow, this is a new subject.
and learn and the key for me was I could experiment so just down the road was Swindon Swindon town so if we played in the morning and Oxford were away couldn't see the game used to hop in the car and go and watch Swindon so the Swindon manager the first time was Oz the Ardealis he'd gone from Spurs to Swindon and was player manager so he played
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Chapter 3: How did Manchester United's tactics evolve during the 1999 treble-winning season?
So it was a new language and different football. And I was fortunate that Eric was my assistant the first year because he ran everything. So they, similar to United, for years had a structure, principles, a way of playing. that they believed in and drummed in from the first team all the way down and bought players to fit that.
So, you know, we play four at the back, you know, one dominant centre-back, one who could come out and play, two full-backs, one... who always got forward, were great going forward. The other one was more defensive and took in. We always had one six, always. He was the captain. It was the brains and the glue. We always had kind of an eight. And this one was Jansen. What a player, left foot.
So he was an eight, kind of up and down. Great passer of the ball. So we had a sitter, a passer, and we had a 10. We had a 10, that's it. It'll come to me. We had a 10 and we had Blas Cufo, centre. Big striker. We had two wingers who were wingers, Anatovic and Elia. And they always picked quick wing. That was it. That was the structure.
So whenever you went, you went, well, we're going to buy a right back. Well, it's got to be an attacking right back. Wingers. Wingers were the...
I remember Elliot, he was rapid.
Rapid, really quick. And then, so one was a winger and the other one was a winger come inside. So like Anatovic was given license to do that. And we had Ronnie Stamm here who just went over. So basically we built with a three. We had a one and we had kind of three tens.
Yeah.
or two 10s and two strikers in terms of that. So that was kind of developed on.
It's very interesting. You've got it set up right now on the board. There's the diamond, the free-back with a diamond in the midfield, which is obviously a very Dutch thing. It was Cruyff with the diamond in the centre. And I remember, I think, Ten Hag played it when he was at United second time round, I think once, maybe twice in Europe.
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