McClaren succeeded Eriksson as England coach after a number of years as his assistant, and the Manchester City manager believes his old team were unlucky to be beaten by Russia last night.
"Of course, I hope he will keep his job," said the Swede.
"I think England still have a possibility of qualifying - and I hope that they will.
"Steve is my friend; I've known him for many years and worked with him for five-and-a-half years and I feel sorry for him.
"It looked very good; I think England played very well and I am as disappointed as anyone.
"I don't think England deserved to lose. They played well and should have at least had a draw."
Eriksson accepts, however, that managers must accept they will get the blame if results do not go well.
He added: "I know that rather well! But that's life in football, and I think it's the same in every country.
"You cannot sack 22 players and you cannot sack the owner or chairman of a club. So who is sitting there? The manager.
"That's life, and you have to live with it and accept it for what it is." Tweet
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i bet sven is laughing his head off. at least he qualified for the finals. when he was in charge. why has nobody slagged robinson off for the 2nd goal. (so called international keeper) he should have parried that shot, away from goal. not back into the middle of his area. get joe in goal...
Sven shows his genious again,the longer mclaren stays england manager the better he makes sven look,i was against mclaren at the start and because i'm consistent i'll be against mclaren at the end.
Hands off Sven and Elano!
Very humble Sven. But the reality is England need a top quality manager and McClaren certinely isn't one! Lucky for us though we now have the best!
I hope they don't try and poach Sven.
I think they should give him another year.
CTID
When it comes to the crunch in big matches we always fail.
We are like the ex boxer Frank Bruno.Ok knocking over journeymen but step up in class and we get knocked out.
The trouble with England is they keep picking the 'supposed' best players for the team despite these players failing everytime they really have to prove their mettle.
We need to rebuild and get the top young players in now,like almost every team does after every tournament except us.
And stop this stupid habit of going 1-0 up then trying to defend for the rest of the game...it rarely proves succesful.Give a team all the possesion and eventually they will score.
Watching England is like groundhog day.Always the same.At least not qualifying will stop all the hype,flags and inevitable tears next summer!
He's not going to say "sack him" is he. ..they all drink the wine out of the same pot!
McClaren is not an England manager no more than I am a Posh Spice look-alike. Sven is a gentleman, can speak to the Press and although he wasn't the best England manager he was better than ginger. Where was the passion last night. You could tell when the camera panned on to the team. Some of the sang the national anthem half-hearted, the others never even opened their gobs. I am not particularly a Royalist but while we have the present set-up they should be singing their hearts out before the game and showing some true passion. They all looked like a load of wimps lining up last night and that carried through to the match.