Just read a good article, well worth a read. http://www.football365.com/f365-features/8986660/Premier-League-s-Top-Five-Centre-Halves Well its mainly a good article as Curtis Davies is second. Glad to see that he is getting some credit, anyone who thinks he isn't brilliant is clearly proved wrong. The only English man in the top five is pretty impressive, i think there is a long way to go before he is the England squad, but he must surely have a chance. If Ricky Lambert can make it surely Curtis Davies can. Someone coming into his prime, on the up and performing consistently well.
Excellent article. Curtis stats speak for themselves. But why is talk of call up "premature" as the writer says. Anyone who saw the Everton game (except Garth Crooks apparently) knows he outclassed England CH Jagielka in every aspect. For someone who hasn't had a lot of Prem experience he's been massive....and improving every game. With him and Chester/Faye backed up by McGregor we have become very hard to beat.
He won't get in the England Squad until after this WC campaign. Even in the friendlies we have coming up, because Roy will want to see how we fair against potential opponents in the USA, Germany and Chile. So that means a full team. And would you really take anything out of Davies getting a call up against the likes of Andorra or San Marino, like Lambert did?
Lambert was picked as he was the best option at the time with Rooney and others unavailable and he did very well. If we were playing Spain he'd still been the best option and probably still would have played. Davies can't be far down the pecking order and it'll only take a couple of injuries for him to get in.
Hold up. Do you all, honestly, think that Curtis Davies is better than Jagielka and Cahill? I would probably consider him as joint 5th best right now. Jagielka Cahill Lescott Dawson Davies - Jones - Shawcross - Caulker Smalling We're ****ed when it comes to CBs at the moment.
Based on performances this season he would be at least third imo. He's certainly been better than those you have put him in joint-fifth with. How Smalling gets into the squad is ****ing annoying... it's probably due to what club he plays for.
He's not better, nor worse. If you're looking on current performances this season, I agree. He's been the third best. But you're about 10 games in. If we're basing England call ups on ~10 games then I think we're well in the ****.
It depends if you'd prefer to look at it as form over ~10 games or the bigger picture. The bigger picture being that the others are simply better footballers and have proven it. I think we should wait and see if Davies form carries out for the whole season. He's played in the PL before and not made it nearly as well as he's doing now. Hence why he dropped out of the top flight for a few years. I'd say that both Caulker and Davies are tied in the fact they've both started the season very well. One thing i'm absolutely sure of is that there is a spot in the England side for a very good centre half. Davies needs to keep focused and injury free in order to make it his but his career tells you that he can't do that. However, he can change.
Based on what I have seen, Davies made Jagielka look like a pub footballer on Saturday against Everton. Whether it is ex Defender Bruce giving him the confidence to play in the manner he is doing, but his performances have been absolutely outstanding, seriously. I was particularly underwhelmed when I heard we were signing him. Now, I think he has been one of our best signings. I would also say he is the best centre half I have seen pull on a Hull City shirt. Worth an England cap? Absolutely, he's better than almost all the other centre backs that are guaranteed a call up. Cahill? He's terrible!
Or just Jagielka isn't that good? Let's be honest, centre half competition for England isn't great at the moment.
It doesn't matter who he gets called up against. The point is a City player would have been called up for England proving there's no barrier for other England hopefuls to join us in future, or for our own hopefuls to stay.
I agree with most of that apart from the last bit. Cahill is a quality player which is why he ended up at Chelsea. He's got the lot for a defender for me. Remember our game against Chelsea? We dominated possession second half but hardly had a shot because their centre halves completely marked our attack out of the game. Every time we went forward they just swatted us away with total ease.
I'm not being funny but any professional footballer who can't manage an extra 180 minutes football in 2 weeks, then return to consistent club displays, wants hanging out to dry.
I'm sure most of that is down to John Terry. Who is, regardless of his character, a formidable defender. Plus they have Ramirez, Mikel, Luiz and Lampard playing as 2 in front of a 4. Probably as much down to the formation rather than centre half ability. I still don't rate Cahill.
Agree about Terry but I think Cahill isn't far behind him. He must have done something right to get picked ahead of Luiz at centre-half at times.
