Rooney Welbeck Cleverly Smalling Jones Young If they played regularly for United and also as part of the england team then the england side would have a familiarity about it and add in 5 more players, Joe Hart and others and its very similar to the Spanish side. They have usually around 7 Barcelona players in the side so when they play a large number of the plauyers are already aware of many of their team mates. I know fans of other clubs will think its unfair but its something that is possible and you can make some quite decent line ups using the players. We also have Rio, Carrick and Owen in our squad who could have a spot on the bench.
Rooney and Welbeck yes - they have formed a good partnership and understanding. Likewise with Young - he works well with the strikers so it's all about the unit. But in CM it's all about having a good partnership - Barca dominate the Spanish midfield cos Xavi and Iniesta work so well together. Cleverley would need to form a great partnership with another England mid in order to make the CM spot his own. Likewise with Smalling and Jones - if they get a great partnership going at CB (or CB/RB) for Utd then they should be a shoe in for England like Pique and Puyol are for Spain. Until then, they won't necessarily have any greater understanding as they are not playing regularly in the same positions for Utd.
Maybe in a few years time if all of them are regulars at United. But certainly not right now. I don't think Jones is quite there for club and country yet. Plenty of positives about him, but still has a long way to go and in that respect I think Smalling is the better player. Another thing is the lack of definition in their roles. It's good from one aspect as they have more strings to their bow but it's not always a good thing. If you take Sheasy for example, he's big, strong, two footed, great in the air, good tackler- he should have been a great centre back but right now, he's a jack of all trades (still a good player), but sometimes you have to play regularly in one position to become the best player in that position. So in that way, I don't like to see young players playing out of position (even if they are accomplished enough) just for game time. But generally I think there is a lack of team development in the England squad. I'm not sure that there is many flourishing partnerships. Rooney and Young is an exception. But there has always been the Lampard-Gerrard case cited. Full backs and the wingers playing in front of them? You don't really see that partnership working for England as well as you do at say here at United.
