Talk has been fairly international call-up based recently, so may as well have a go ourselves! Who'd make your world cup squad if you had to decide by tomorrow? Mine would probably be - Gk - Hart (he's been **** but let's face it, he's going) Ruddy Forster Def - Walker Lowton Baines Cole Davies Cahill Caulker Jones Mid - Carrick Hudd Barkley Wilshere Gerrard Lallana Walcott Townsend Fwd - Rooney Sturridge Lambert Welbeck Lot harder than i thought tbh, i've probably missed tons honourable mentions - carson, shaw, johnson, lampard, delph, ox, young, rodriguez, shelvey, gibbs
If fit I'd take this squad. I don't see the point in taking Jagielka, Cahill etc there not good enough and are blocking younger players. 1.Hart 2.Walker 3.A.Cole 4.Gerrard 5.Caulker 6.Jones 7.Walcott 8.Carrick 9.Rooney 10.Barkley 11.Oxlade-Chamberlin 12.Richards 13.Forster 14.Shaw 15.Smalling 16.Wilshere 17.Townsend 18.Cleverley 19.Sturridge 20.Welbeck 21 Lallana 22.Butland 23.Morrison
Barkley, Wilshere and Lallana all played today - they'd all be in my squad and I'd try damn hard to fit two of them into the starting XI. Cleverley can put his feet up with a beer and watch on TV next summer with the rest of us. As for CBs... you could pretty much pick 4 or 5 from a cast of about 15. Cahill looks a dead cert starter, but I'm less convinced by Jagielka. I need to see more of Caulker before making my mind up about him, but he looks good. And Smalling looks better to me than I had originally thought, so I hope he gets a good run of games for Utd (at CB, not RB), so we can find out more. Davies should be very much in the mix; Dawson too. One not mentioned so far who I'd take (fitness permitting): Carroll. I feel he just offers a little more than Lambert, although it's a close call.
think it'd have to favour utility players more and more. If you can get a CB who can play RB or vice versa, they may get in over a better CB who's not as versatile
Which is why, even if he has a poor season, Phil Jones would get in the side. That and the fact he plays for United...
Anyone who has Smalling or Cleverley anywhere near the squad are either pissed, support Man Utd or they're called Roy Hodgson. Jagielka might not be the best centre half in the world but he's ten times better than Smalling.
We've had this discussion before, haven't we, where you've said "side" when you mean squad? "Side" to me, in this context, means the starting XI.
Knowing Roy he would get into the side though. He has done recently. I don't think we've never had this discussion before - if anything I remember having a discussion/argument with someone (not you) about something similar.
Smalling seemed good against us and one of the few who wasn't diving about. He's a set piece threat too. Earlier in the season I thought the calls for Huddlestone to be picked were premature but the last few games he's been brilliant. I'd be interested to see if he made the squad if there was one picked today. I agree with what Bruce said about him on MOTD: we need passers in Brazil, not just a team of battlers.
Did you see him against Germany? Note, we are not an international team and until yesterday we struggled to score against most defences. Ballack actually pointed out Smalling as being nowhere near international standard, he got beat in the air three times in the box in about three minutes. One of which lead to a goal. Jagielka every day of the week for me, Smalling isn't good enough for England.
Gaz Nev was quoted as saying that Man Utd's opening 11 minutes was defensively shocking. As a centre half he's a massive part of that. I thought he took his goal well but apart from that he looked very ordinary IMO.
Wasn't he all over Davies for his goal? Hands on the shoulders for leverage and the lot? I'm pretty sure if Sagbo had a Centre Backs shoulders to use for leverage he could smash in a few headers too!
As much as I hate to say it I don't think he did much wrong. Davies was caught a bit flat footed and was out muscled by Smalling. Davies didn't complain and knew he'd been done. Unusual for him, in my opinion he's a much better defender than Smalling.
