Not players that Capello will blindly pick. Take Capello out of the equation, for the purposes of this thread. I am referring to players who, on an objective assessment, simply have to be the plane. For me, there are only a handful, at best. Joe Hart: undoubtedly the best English goalie around, at the moment Scott Parker: isn't putting a foot wrong in an England shirt, and is undoubtedly the best English DM at the moment Ashley Young: I cannot think of anyone better for our LW Rooney: (provided he receives no more than a two-match suspension) no matter what you think of him as a person, there is no denying that is almost single-handedly keeping United's title hopes alive this season That's it! I can't think of any other player who I would say wouldn't definitely travel. Which includes the whole of our defensive back-line. That's quite shocking, really.
Ashley Cole has to be there. You can't really take Capello out of the equation, as you know he'll pick the same old players 90% of the time.
Hart, Jones, Terry, Cahill, Cole, Barry, Parker, Walcott, Young, Rooney and Bent, will surely all go, which is why England are doomed to failure under Capello.
It will be the same old faces that have failed in major tournaments time and time again, and the same old will happen...... the first good team we come up against we will be on our way home.
I agree that Cole has to be there as well. There is no-one good enough to challenge him at LB. Rooney definitely. Parker is a maybe for me. Am waiting to see how he gets on against Spain. Everyone else should have to fight for their place - which could only be a good thing for the team as everyone would be there on merit (hmmm, have heard that before).
Interesting that you reserve judgment about Parker until you see him against Spain. But what will that prove? If he does well then all well and good, but if he does not (and there are not many DMs that are going to cope well with Spain) what happens then? Discard him in favour of someone who then looks good simply because they don't appear against Spain then you are back to square one! If you're going to pick your team based on how well they do against Spain then I doubt there will be many who pass the test!
True. I am not expecting an England win or for Parker to dominate the Spanish midfield. As you say, that is unlikely to happen. But as long as Parker doesn't look completely out of his depth, gets in a few decent tackles and generally plays his part in keeping the scoreline respectable then he would make the list for me. If he struggles as badly as, for example, Barry against Germany then I couldn't have him in my "must definitely be on the plane" list ahead of any other of the midfield candidates. It's not to say that he would then be worse than them - more that he wouldn't have proven himself any to be any better than them against good international opponents.
I have every confidence that Parker will do very well, as he has done in every game he's played for England.
You forgot Lampard! The italian mentality of his generation is experience, most Italian teams at tourny's are an average of 30. If he breaks with tradition I'll be amazed.
Yeah, him and Kyle. But that's what Capello does doesn't he - get in the people he wants even if it means playing them in the wrong position.
In all honesty, would it surprise anyone to hear that the England manager had to pick certain players to appease the sponsors, if those players were fit?
The past England team should have centred around Paul Scholes imo, but no, lets shoehorn the more glamorous Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham, strange theory you have there PNP, but its as good a reason as any!...and doesn't dispel ginger racism either!
does'nt matter who plays we won't win the Euro,we're not good enough i don't think we will get past the group stage
Scholes played a deeper playmaker's role for Man Utd towards the end of his career, so I see no reason why he couldn't have played in a midfield alongside Gerrard and Lampard, Notso. Trying to shoehorn them all into unfamiliar roles was stupid, though. Why couldn't Lampard have played up behind the striker, as he does with Chelsea, Scholes in the middle alongside an energetic and tenacious tackler, like Parker? Stick Gerrard out on the right, where he played for a couple of seasons under Benitez, when Liverpool were winning things and you'd only have had to fill the left wing.
