Wednesday 16 May 2012

My thoughts on England's Euro 2012 squad


Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, Robert Green, John Ruddy 

Defenders: Glen Johnson, Phil Jones, John Terry, Joleon Lescott, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Leighton Baines

Midfielders: Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard, Scott Parker, Ashley Young, James Milner 

Strikers: Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Andy Carroll, Jermain Defoe 

So, let's start with the goalkeepers. Obviously Joe Hart was a must. He's clearly the best English keeper and arguably the best keeper in the world at the moment. Paul Ruddy has been brilliant this season and fully deserves his place, but Robert Green...really? He's been playing in the championship this season and not even for the championship winning side. If you're going to go the championship route would you not pick Kelvin Davis? He's been unbelievable this season. In my opinion though, where's Ben Foster? He was excellent this season and has played at the top level. 

Now onto defenders. Fairly decent list. Obviously Cole is a must. He's fantastic and the best left back in the world, in my opinion. Terry is a leader and there have been good glimpses of him and Cahill having a fantastic partnership. For me though, the weak links are clearly Baines and Jones. Jones is so overrated. He's a fairly good center back, but put him in defensive midfield or right back and he's useless. He's an awful passer of the ball. Also, where the hell is Micah Richards? He's been brilliant this season. He's big and strong and can defend, unlike Glen Johnson.

The midfielders is very strong. Everyone there deserves to be there for different reasons, apart from Downing. Let's be honest, he's done absolutely nothing all season. Let's like on the bright side though, Gerrard and Lampard are fantastic leaders on the pitch. Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain will be great impact players to bring on. Barry is a very good player. Good passer of the ball and good at breaking up play. Ashley Young and Milner are will be good but I would've preferred to have seen Adam Johnson instead of Milner, as I feel as the better winger. 

Strikers is fairly simple. Rooney was obviously a dead certain. Jermain Defoe is a great goalscorer and Andy Carroll could be a good player to bring on if we need goals. I would have liked to have seen Crouch in the squad though. He's consistent, you know what you're going to get with him and he can score goals. 

All in all though, very good team and I'm really looking forward to the Euro's! 

2 comments:

  1. generally agree with your views. written mine at http://caf1990.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hodgson-makes-key-errors-in-squad.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for reading and commenting. I'll take a look at yours now!

    ReplyDelete