England World Cup Squad

[Robpthegills]

Funnily enough Rimshot I said the very same thing to my friend in France today. We cannot win it. Its hard enough out there anyway but with what we have we have no chance. So lets blood the players of the future with just a couple of
the old guard to help like gerrard.

The southampton players are on a high, lets play people full of confidence. But as you say, we will go with old reliables who play the same square football time and time again. Or if we do try the youngsters he will try to enforce
so much discipline into them they will be stifled anyway

[Garawa]

What I don't get is the most exciting players all seem to be at unfashionable clubs or not even Premier League players. Perhaps this is largely to do with Premier League clubs being rammed solid with foreign players no-one has heard of.

I was really impressed with Oxlade-Chamberlain. As we have got ever closer to the World Cup he has suddenly become almost useless! Wilshere has let both OC and Ramsey (before his injury) overtake him and now he has little to offer. Cleverley was OK but has fallen with the Man Utd stubble into mediocrity. The players that seem to excite the most are outside of the Premier League. Danny Ings is the striker most talk about and he may get his chance with Premiership football as Burnely look good to go up. It has been many years since we had a decent out and out goalscorer in the vein of Shearer or Wright. Thomas Ince I am big fan of but he also is a Championship player currently on loan at Palace from Blackpool.

It's not as if there aren't any players to choose from, just suddenly hardly any of them are worth taking. So I have to ask what exactly have Belgium done recently? How comes a nation that barely managed 1 or 2 players (if that) you would consider to be in the top 50 of World football now has a side crammed full of superstars seemingly overnight? What have they done so radically different and have we done what Italy and other countries have done over the years - simply just sat back and admired at how much better our league was compared to everybody else and got caught napping?!

[gillsfan1066]

I think there is only one World Cup worth winning and that's the 2014 cup In Brazil. Talk of bringing in players and getting them ready for 2018 not worth the discussion, who knows who will be available then half the team may be injured. THIS is the World Cup to win, and we have as good a chance as anyone to make it into the quarter finals and who knows what can happen.
My money is on Brazil, I honestly can not see England winning it, but I would give Lidbids left *** if we did, and just how did Belgium become every body's darling and ranked 10th in the world , and mighty England only 12th ??

[Robpthegills]

Hiya 1066

with regards to Belgium, I think its because generally most of their players are better than ours.

Kompany, Vertonghen, Fellaini, Hazard, Dembele, Mirallas, De Bruyne, Lukaku not to mention the not so hots but still good Benteke, Vossen, Chadli and Vossen.

I think they have a lot of good players. I do doubt however that they will gel as a team and win it. Bit like the spanish used to be. Full of talent but not winners (recent history aside).

[gillsfan1066]

After watching a few Italian league games this last couple of weeks, and the South American players in the BPL, I feel very sorry for the refs at this up coming World Cup, don't think we need football refs think we need Theatrical Producers, maybe someone from the WWE wrestling to decide what is a fowl and what is a dive.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

The England World Cup Squad has been announced:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Fraser Forster (Celtic).

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Attackers: Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United).

Standby: John Ruddy (Norwich City), Jon Flanagan (Liverpool), John Stones (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Andy Carroll (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC).

[Rimshot]

I think that's a decent squad. I don't think it will win anything but there's no-one missing who would change that. I'm looking forward to seeing how Shaw, Sterling, Barklay ,O-C, Lallana perform on a world stage. Let's give the youngsters a chance to see if they have the potential to become world-class.

[Garawa]

I think what has been obvious over the past couple of years is that "youngsters" barely need blooding in or protecting any more. They have no fear, can run full pelt all day long and have a point to prove, they want to be the best and have a desire that is un-matched by many of their senior counterparts. All they lack is a little bit of technique and the cleverness world class players have to dictate matches.

We cannot win anything if they don't have that but as nobody is expecting us to do anything at all anyway, what better education could they have? As many have been playing alongside world class players anyway, that desire might end up earning a semi-final place if a couple of teams are off their game. Go for it!

[Rimshot]

I just hope Hodgson doesn't think just 'taking them' is enough, play them !

[Garawa]

I've never understood the "taking for experience" mantra. It's like having a tour of Wembley, it's rather nice but you hardly become a footballing expert afterwards. Many of these kids surely can't glean much from seeing behind the scenes and as most have grown up with some of the biggest clubs in world football does it really have an impact? I agree with Rimshot, if they need experience then they need to be on the pitch otherwise what's the point?