My England (Euro 2016) 23 man squad
Roy Hodgson has
massively under achieved during his time in charge of the England national team
and his team will need to perform considerably better in France this summer. Preparation
for the tournament is already well underway, the FA have announced the England squad
will be based in Chantilly, a small town North of Paris. After qualifying from
group E with 10 wins out of 10, the real preparation will start now. Warm up friendlies
against world Champions Germany, and the Netherlands will provide good quality opposition
to fine tune tactical approaches that will be utilized during the tournament.
think it’s
important to select inform payers but would point to Brazil 2014 where the 11 that started England’s group
opener in Manaus against Italy consisted of almost 50% Liverpool players, who
were just off the back off a fantastic domestic season, where they came very close
to winning the Premiere League. But in all honesty were Glen Johnson and Jordan
Henderson the best players to play that match? Another thing that lives in the
memory from that game was Wayne Rooney starting on the left of a 4-3-3 system
that Hodgson seems obsessed with playing when again I would question wither or
not it best suits the players he has at his disposal.
Another
cultural issue that I feel the English national team has is that they place so
much emphasis on the “captain”. It creates an almost immortal status where if
the manager feels the player need to be rested of dropped for a specific game,
the media and fans are on the case, what’s going on? Why is he not playing? Or even
creates a media storm when the captain plays and they feel he doesn’t merit a place
(Remember when David Beckham was captain). The Italians have the right idea, no
designated captain and the player with the most international caps selected to
play that match gets the arm band.
The English
press is without doubt a hindrance on the team, unrealistic expectations that
creates massive expectations across a nation that loves and places much
importance on the game. There does however seem to be less of this in the build
up to France but there’s still time! In reality when you look at the squad
England have they should probably be realistically achieving a quarter final,
Sven lead the side to 3 quarters losing 2 of them on penalties. I do however
accept his squad was much stronger than the current crop. I England probably are
a quarter final team, any less is underachieving and any more is over
achieving.
I’ll preface my
selection by saying that I’m presuming the best in all injury situations (which
is not realistic) and that everyone I select will be fit to play and will have
been able to gain match fitness before the tournament commences.
23 man Squad
GK- Joe Hart, Jack Butland, Ben Foster
Defenders-Luke Shaw, Ryan Bertrand, Garry Cahill,
Chris Smalling, John Stones, Phil Jagielka Nathaniel Clyne, Kyle Walker
Midfielders- James Milner, Michael Carrick, Erik
Dier, Mark Noble, Raheem Stirling, Theo Walcott, Ross Barkley, Jack Wilshire
Forwards- Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy,
Danny Welbeck
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