As you may well remember, the man after whom our blog is lovingly named began his continental managerial career with this cringing interview, in which he put on a strange pseudo-Dutch accent in what can only have been an attempt to ‘bridge the culture gap’. However, this ludicrous start ultimately ended in success, with big Schteve bringing home a first ever Dutch Title to FC Twente Enschede, ahead of the more illustrious names of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, and, perhaps most impressively for a man who wasn’t afraid to splash the cash at Middlesbrough, without an embarrassment of riches. In fact, his inspired replacements of the departing Eljero Elia and Marko Arnautovic with Bryan Ruiz and the on-loan Miroslav Stoch proved crucial to Twente’s success.

Naturally, Steve drew interest from other clubs, notably VfL Wolfsburg, and on 11^th May 2010, McClaren headed for the Bundesliga, and, thankfully, did not try to endear himself with any Monty Python walks or ill-advised German accents. To the outsider as well Wolfsburg seems like a great job to take – former Bundesliga champions (08-09), with serious finance courtesy of being a subsidiary of Volkswagen and a playing squad rich in talent would suggest that Steve can only build on his burgeoning reputation throughout Europe.

Certainly his summer transfer activity has been promising. Probably his major coup was not in fact a signing, but rather keeping hold of striker Edin Dzeko, who, with 65 goals in his previous two seasons, had been attracting more than passing glances from the twin powers of Manchester as well as many other would-be suitors, including an AC Milan still struggling to replace Shevchenko.

However, the season has not started quite as McClaren would have wished. An opening day fixture away to Bayern Munich is hardly how he would have hoped to open his account, and they were unlucky to lose 2-1 thanks to a 93rd minute strike from Bastian Schweinsteiger. Sadly, they would also go on to lose their next two games, the first a reminder of that classic game of two halves between Tottenham and Man Utd, with die Wölfe taking a 3-0 lead only to capitulate 4-3 at home to Mainz, and the second a 2-0 loss away at Dortmund, courtesy of a stunning strike from Nuri Sahin.

After this game, McClaren reverted (after a certain amount of pressure from his players) to a standard 4-4-2 from his preferred 4-2-3-1 from his Twente days, recalling Grafite to partner Dzeko in the same system that brought them their title win back in 2009. This change, admittedly helped by some easier fixtures, resulted in 9 points from their next three games; a 2-0 win at home to Hannover followed by a 3-1 win away at Hamburg and finally a 2-1 home victory over Freiburg – with all but one of the goals coming from either Dzeko or Grafite.

A draw against Gladbach was followed with more concerning news: that of an injury to rock-solid keeper Diego Benaglio, with the reserve reserve Martin Hitz taking over in goal for the next few games. Sadly, Hitz had a bit of a nightmare with Wolfsburg 2-0 up at home to Bayer Leverkusen, demonstrating that rush of blood to the head all too common with German goalies. In trying to punch a cross clear, Hitz managed to miss the ball by miles, allowing Simon Rolfes to head into an empty net. They lost the game 3-2, and would go on to lose away to Nürnberg as well.

It would be harsh to judge Steve’s success after a mere nine games, yet given his previous success at Twente, 10 points of a possible 27 has to be seen as a poor start to the season, with Wolfsburg languishing in 13^th place. His defensive partnership of Barzagli and Kjaer have yet to really gel, with both being guilty of individual mistakes, whilst he attempted to mould his players to the system at the beginning of the season, rather than the other way around.

However, he has learnt from this mistake, and Wolfsburg have looked much more dangerous since reverting to their more familiar 4-4-2. There are positives in that both Grafite and Dzeko are firing on all cylinders, whilst Diego has had a good start to life back in the Bundesliga. There have also been very few tougher starts than Bayern away, followed by the current top two with Mainz at home and Dortmund away. In addition, Benaglio’s return any day now should add confidence behind the wavering defence, and whilst clean sheets are a rarity in the Bundesliga, having a Swiss number one won’t hurt! This weekend’s fixture at the Volkswagen Arena against Stuttgart, who are also floundering, should give them a chance to rise up the table, and with the options they have in attack, once Steve sorts the defence out, it would be highly surprising should the green-and-whites continue to struggle in the lower reaches of the table.