The England squad

[madandra]

Well folks ... Fabio Capello has named the squad he wants to take to the World Cup .... SPAIN ....


No seriously :

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham).

Defenders: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).

Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City).

Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).



Upson is a dud who aint cut it this season.
Ferdinand is not 100%
King only has not got any knees
Rooney is carrying a knock

It looks a bit old and considering it is being played at altitude do you think they have the legs to get them all the way?

 

[USER1999]

Can't see the point in taking any one who isn't fit, and that's half of them.

Wouldn't have taken SWP either, although Lennon, SWP and Walcott are all fully interchangeable, and equally useless.

Not sure I would have picked JT either. Not had his best season, on or off the pitch.

I prefer your first comment, I'd take Spain.

 

[Robobum]

Looks fine to me.

Plenty of ammo for keyboard jockeys and football phone in experts to criticise.

 

[birdieman]

Isn't 3 keepers a waste of a place? 2 seems ample.

Nice holiday for the number 3 choice I suppose.

Keepers - dont know, could be fine, could be iffy.
Backs look ok, lacking a bit of zip maybe.
Midfield looks fairly good.
Forward line is the weak link for me. Rooney will have to play awfully well and if he isn't fit or gets crocked or plays poorly it'll end in tears, last 16.

You'd have thought they'd have found Drogba a UK passport by now?

 

[pokerjoke]

I would have taken Walcott as a super sub,Heskey i recon im better missed an open goal saturday and will never cut it at international level,also why warnock and not johnson will warnock play?I suppose hes cover for ashley cole but johnson could change a game if needed and i would have left swp behind.Madandra im not sure wether you know nothing about football or youve been drinking heavily to even suggest leaving Rooney at home because he has a knock is ludicrous.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It isn't a great squad but even if you swap a few names about its still hardly going to scare the world. We do seem a bit light in all areas and can see it only ending one way (trip home at the 1/4 final stage)

 

[Spinn77]

Bloody SWP...! Not really that impressed with him, can't hold a place down at Man City so shouldn't get into this squad. Walcott seems to have played his way out of the squad and he was given every chance by Fabio to convince recently.

I'd have taken Johnson over SWP and would have left upson behind too. Not a great squad but think we can do quite well without injuries and suspensions. Need to keep possesion a lot better too

 

[CannyFifer]

I think any of the top 5 premier teams would beat any 11 from the squad picked but you can only play/pick who's available. Best of luck and hopefully I'll be proved wrong but all the British teams seem to have fallen behind with home talent.

 

[CrapHacker]

He's picked the most defensive squad he could out of the 30.

I'd have taken Johnson before Wright-Phillips
I'd have Bent instead of Heskey.
Walcott in front of Carrick
Parker instead of Barry.
Dawson in front of Upson.

I still can't really see that King is a fitter player now than he has been for the last 5 years.

I still say Gerrard and Lampard will not be a successful partnership. Gerrard is crap as a wide left player.

We've sacrificed Johnson and Walcott because we have overlapping fullbacks, so we have no plan B if our attacking options fail, or if either of them gets injured.

Barry will miss at least one game. And has done no altitude training. So either the training the rest of the squad have done is a waste of time, or Barry is going to need another week to have any chance of being remotely match fit.

As a squad we are overloaded with defensive options, whilst having no cover for our solo crocked defensive midfielder, AND at the same time having taken away as many of our attacking options as is humanly possible.

On the plus side, however...

We have Joe Cole. He can play wide left, wide right, and in the hole behind Rooney. And at the moment it looks like he's going to have to do all three at the same time.

Capello wants in form players, which is why he dropped Walcott. And he picked Heskey because ..? And who has been keeping SWP out of the Man City side ?

He wants fit players. So King, Ferdinand, and Barry are all fighting fit, are they?

After England get knocked out Capello will peel off his face mask to reveal he is really Eriksson in disguise.

Overpaid and unsuccessful ? We'll have to wait and see.

 

[Parmo]

I would have taken Johnson and not SWP, other than that its a good squad who I think will do well.

 

[pokerjoke]

I would have taken walcott as a sub,imagine giving him 20 minutes when everyone else is tired,wide right or up front.

 

[Spoff]

I would have taken walcott as a sub,imagine giving him 20 minutes when everyone else is tired,wide right or up front.

Yeah, he could run past players even quicket before falling over the ball or kicking it to a defender/out of play.

I'm delighted Walcott has been left out, undoubtably he is a very skilfull player, but has not got an ounce of football sense. Wenger doesn't use him much, he shouldn't be considered for England.

Heskey is a weird one, not many fans rate him, but the players all love him. Owen scored a lot more with him than without him and I saw yesterday in the last ten games without Heskey Rooney has scored 2, in the ten with him Rooney has scored 9.

Adam Johnson should have gone over SWP, he can play both wings, has got an end product and replaced SWP in the Man C side!!!

I think Green is Capello's number one but would personally play Hart (As Robinson is out of the picture) as for the defence.

Terry is not the player he used to be, Ferdinand is likely to get injured and Carragher and King are not mobile enough.

England will not do very well I don't think.

 

[madandra]

I think Heskey has been picked for 'the greater good' of the team and not for what he can achieve himself. I also think Johnson should have been given the shout ahead of SWP.

Its gonna be interesting.

 

[Spoff]

I think Heskey has been picked for 'the greater good' of the team and not for what he can achieve himself. I also think Johnson should have been given the shout ahead of SWP.

I agree with that, if Heskey isn't picked I think he would accept it and encourage the others, I get the impression if Bent was left out he would go off in a huff.

His past record on Twitter may have affected opinion?

As for Twitter, those of you that do, search #MeatPieTop10

 

[RGDave]

Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).

This has to be the least terrifying selection of strikers in the universe, not counting Rooney.

 

[pokerjoke]

Ive heard heskey makes a lovely cup of tea.

 

[CrapHacker]

I'm delighted Walcott has been left out, undoubtably he is a very skilfull player, but has not got an ounce of football sense. Wenger doesn't use him much, he shouldn't be considered for England.

He's not a winger, says everyone.

Well he put in more decent crosses against Japan than SWP and Lennon put together. Ok it was only two, but it proves that neither of them are in devastating form either, but they haven't had as much expectation thrust on them.

Also, I've got no qualms with Lennon going, he's a fine player, but he missed a sitter against Japan. Walcott can score those types of goal, even in the patchy form he's showing at the moment. See the goals he recently got against Barcelona and Wigan.

He also set up a few of Bendtner's goals with low balls between the defense and the keeper. Not a great variety, and many of the crosses were borderline underhit. That just shows he's inconsistant. Umm yeah, show me a winger that isn't. The thing is, when he gets behind the defense, if the strikers can keep up with him, they will get one or two chances. If they don't, then that's not his fault.

Capello played him in the first half against Japan when the game was tightest, and gave him strict instructions to keep the width. Lennon had the same instruction on the left, and didn't show anything until he had the freedom to come inside more in the second half when he gave Cole the chance for our first goal. If Capello wants to play defensively ( look at the squad he's picked ) then he should have started the game with Milner on the right, and put Walcott on when the game opened up.

SWP is pushing 30 and has never stepped up to the plate for England. He's played 30 times, scoring 6 goals. He's always proved himself to be happy not playing for a top side, rather than dropping to a midtable team and proving whether he is good enough or not. He ran around a lot for half an hour against Japan and got in. If Walcott had had the same chance, he'd be on the plane.

Capello gave Walcott the chance to play himself out of the World Cup, whereas he picked Upson, Warnock, Carrick, and Milner after they showed nothing in these two friendlies, and he also picked Joe Cole, Heskey, and SWP after the briefest of showings.

For someone who is meant to be the best, that's pretty poor management in my book.

 

[CrapHacker]

Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).

This has to be the least terrifying selection of strikers in the universe, not counting Rooney.

Dunno about that, but picture the line up against USA.

Pick a keeper, any keeper ( I say Green, but it doesn't matter )

Defense : Carragher, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole.

Midfield : Milner, Lampard, Gerrard, J Cole

Forwards : Rooney, Heskey.

With Lennon to come on as our impact sub, and Crouch for Heskey.

Wow. Just, wow.

I mean, it's not impossible, is it.

 

[freddielong]

Have a look at Heskeys stats for the season he has to be the worst player in any squad at the world cup, this season he has 3 goals and two assists in 31 games, for a forward what was he doing the rest of the time to earn his massive wage, he has one attribute and that is he can hold up the ball.
I would not have taken King because he will not be fit, I think Upson is the best cover we have for the back four so can see that, but I would have taken Walcott as an impact sub.

 

[USER1999]

I can't see Spain, Brazil or Argentina looking down our team sheet and crapping themselves. Can you?