England Squad

Can somebody please tell me how Cleverley gets into this squad ahead of Gareth Barry or Tom Huddlestone??? Bizarre.

Chris Smalling ahead of Michael Dawson or Joleon Lescott? He's awful.




England squad:
Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Celtic), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Hart (Manchester City), John Ruddy (Norwich City).
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Steven Caulker (Cardiff City), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur).
Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).
Forwards: Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC), Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Jay Rodriguez (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Daniel Welbeck (Manchester United).

Christ only knows. Maybe it's because they get regular starts for the current league champions.

Barry is on loan and Lescott doesn't start much for us, so they're automatically dismissed as not good enough, despite the fact Barry walks into the Everton squad and Lescott is being watched by several teams, all of whom would snap him up in a flash.

Dawson, I don't get either. Spurs players tend to get places easily enough, but maybe it's indicative of the damage AVB inflicted on their season early on.

And poor Huddlestone! It's not his fault he was sold to make way for Paulinho and it's no slur on him that Steve Bruce recognised the bargain and snapped him up before anyone else noticed.

I also have to point out the sheer lunacy of having Welbeck in there. Is there really no room for Crouch, the player with the best goal rate in an England shirt?

Good point Leo...guess he's gone for height with Lambert...but agree, Crouch has never really let us down when he's played.

Welbeck is always a shoe in..he's been in every team Hodgson has selected.

I thought Woy said early on this year, "players will be selected on form"....so you can see Lallana and Rodriguez in there...but not the best English DMF in Barry on current form?

Also, what is the point of 4 goalkeepers? He must know his top 3 by now on the process of elimination: Hart, Forster, Ruddy....the 4th will NEVER play anyway....how many times have a squad taken 3 keepers and used all 3....or even 2 of them for that matter?

If I had to pick a starting 11 from this squad + Jagielka for Brazil, it'd be this:

....................................Hart.....................................

Johnson..............Jagielka...........Cahill..................Baines

......................Gerrard.....................Milner....................

Sterling.......................Lallana..........................Sturridge

.................................Rooney.....................................

Smalling and Cleverley is an absolute joke.....they even said on GMR this morning, "would they really be in the squad if they didn't play for Utd?"

Tom Huddlestone.....Umm, i don't think so blue  

I'm still amazed Glen Johnson gets picked, he really is a truly awful defender....And why has Caulker been picked ahead of Dawson too?..i just don't get it.

Dawson ain't good enough. He's far too slow. Look at what we did to Spurs and then tell me he's good enough.

Incidently, Jagielka isn't in the OP.....has he not been picked?

Out of the OP squad, we only have Caulker and Cahill as CBs.....surely that can't be right.

Dawg,
I'd personally still prefer Dawson than Caulker at CB.

Jags is injured

Topdawg wrote:Jags is injured

Ah, fair enough

shakencity wrote:Smalling and Cleverley is an absolute joke.....they even said on GMR this morning, "would they really be in the squad if they didn't play for Utd?"

Tom Huddlestone.....Umm, i don't think so blue  

I'm still amazed Glen Johnson gets picked, he really is a truly awful defender....And why has Caulker been picked ahead of Dawson too?..i just don't get it.

Huddlestone or Cleverley?  

blueboy wrote:

shakencity wrote:Smalling and Cleverley is an absolute joke.....they even said on GMR this morning, "would they really be in the squad if they didn't play for Utd?"

Tom Huddlestone.....Umm, i don't think so blue  

I'm still amazed Glen Johnson gets picked, he really is a truly awful defender....And why has Caulker been picked ahead of Dawson too?..i just don't get it.

Huddlestone or Cleverley?  

I wouldn't have either in the fuckin Bury squad blue, never mind England. Saying that, neither would get in the Bury squad at the minute   

I can honestly say that is poorest England squad for many a year. Be lucky to get out the groups I'm afraid.

RB is the problem. I agree, Johnson ain't great, but Walker's distribution and crossing is awful. Shame Micah isn't fit and playing for us more...as he may be the better option...shame, his fitness is ruining his club and international career.

It does beggar belief that Roy is picking in form players like Lallana, Rodrigez, Lambert, Sterling, Sturridge, Shaw as well as the likes of Gerrard, Barkley and Henderson.

But then goes and picks Smalling, Cleverley and Carrick from a team that is struggling, completely out of form and all have been really poor this season....and if Jones was fit, he'd pick him as well! Bewildering.....so come the summer, United are out of the CL, maybe even finish outside of the UEFA places, win nothing.....and these players really deserve a place on a plane to Brazil ahead of Barry, Lescott, Dawson????? 

Ah, it was inevitable we'd end up with a shit squad sooner or later. Jimmy Hill identified the problem over 20 years ago and everyone just laughed at him. It's a damn shame he's got Alzheimer's now, or I suspect he'd be quietly having the last laugh.

Sooner or later, we'll fail to qualify for something and then maybe the FA will wake up and realise that the money and influx of foreign players is killing the national game. But by then it'll be too late and we'll have a generation who just don't care about International football.

It's a sad indictment that we can assemble an entire national squad for Spain and Belgium from PL players, but we can't field one of our own which is even remotely the same calibre.