Part 1: Who’s going to be in the new England squad?
After the calamity that was the FIFA World Cup 2010 for England, Fabio Capello vowed to re vamp the team for the coming years. He began his long road to restoring the nations pride immediately after the conclusion of the tournament. He admitted to the fact that England lacked creativity, pace and an urgency to win. Player’s like Emile Heskey and Jamie Carragher announced their retirement from the international squad immediately after the conclusion of the World Cup. Whereas players like Paul Robinson and Wes Brown only recently admitted to retiring from the English squad. Capello has an uphill battle on his hands if he hopes to revamp the squad in a way so that they are to live up to the expectations of the country. Here is a look at every position and what player would be most suitable for it.
England have failed to find a quality keeper every since Seamen. Several players have been tried out to wear the number one shirt but have not lived up to the expectations that were cast upon them. Those players include, Robinson, James and Green. All of them have been first choice for England at some point. Joe Hart is now the most obvious choice that England have to take over that number one spot.
His inexperience on the international level might prove to be a problem however. If he can maintain a starting role at Manchester City or anywhere else it would only aid his cause of becoming Englands first choice.
The other choice that Capello would have is that of Ben Foster. Foster had an excellent season at Watford during the 2006 – 2007 season and that led to him paving a way onto the international football scene. However he got injured and didn’t play much for the next two seasons.
He has now moved to join Birmingham and if he manages to impress he could increase the options Fabio Capello would have to choose amongst for the squad.
At the right back, Gary Neville was the previous first choice for the squad. Considering he has now aged tremendously and isn’t nearly as fit as he once was, Capello started to look elsewhere. He turned to Jamie Carragher who proved to be a disaster in the World Cup. His other option was Glenn Johnson. Johnson has proved for his club and country that he is easily one of the best right back’s in the world. He has consistently performed to the standards that were required of him and has even managed to drive the team forward. That is kind of astonishing when you consider that he plays as a right back and not a play maker.
However Capello is well aware of the fact that you always need a back up to your crucial players and that is the case with Glenn Johnson. The only player who is capable of substituting or filling in for Johnson is Manchester City’s right back Micah Richards.
Richards has managed to survive in the City squad despite the fact that the team has gone through a major re haul. This only makes everyone realize the fact that Richards is good enough to be amongst the star studded squad of City. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t have still been in the new and improved Manchester City. If Mancini has spotted something in the player to want to keep him at the club it would only prove that he is worth trying out at least for the squad. He would be a worthy addition to the England squad and should and would be tried out by Capello at least once or twice.
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