da 888casino： With the announcement of Fabio Capello’s 23-man England squad it seems just as four years previously Theo Walcott was the man most pundits were talking about.
da mrbet： Unlike in 2006 it was the Arsenal winger’s omission from the squad that many questioned rather than the England manager’s decision to treat the World Cup Finals as some form of work experience placement.
While personally I would have taken the 21 year -old former Southampton man, mainly due to his ridiculously fast pace, I can see Capello’s doubts as to whether he has been good enough of late to really warrant his place.
Regardless of whether you believe Walcott should have been taken instead of Shaun Wright-Phillips or maybe even Aaron Lennon for the super-biased Gooners out there, the fact of the matter is a lack of first-team starts for Arsenal may have cost Walcott -or did they?
Looking through the 23 man squad one thing that strikes as obviously as Wayne Rooney’s importance is the fact that many of the squad are not what you could consider first-team regulars. Not only that but for some of the players that are first choices for their clubs, they have experienced injury-ravaged- and I use the word ‘ravaged’ lightly- campaigns.
Starting at the back Joe Hart may not be good enough to oust Shay Given from the Manchester City line-up but his loan spell at Birmingham was such a success that his place on the plane to South Africa was well deserved. David James, while hardly being injury-prone has missed several games this season- not just due to Portsmouth potty predicament of having to rest first-team players to save money on appearance fees but also due to injury. Either way the 40 year-old has played a total of 25 league games, a lot less than his goalkeeping colleagues.
Defence is the most obvious area where the real injury prone players pop up, with Ledley King surprising everyone by actually managing more games than the England Captain. Mind you with only 12 league starts Rio Ferdinand is hardly the benchmark for stability, as the Manchester United man has been missing for what amounts to practically two-thirds of the season.
Everyone’s favourite midfielder masquerading as a full-back Glen Johnson has also missed over a third of Liverpool’s season, and again while this is hardly a crime, it is for me a slightly worrying pattern among many of the England squad. Ashley Cole also has only recently returned from injury after missing several months of Chelsea’s season.
Looking at the midfield the most regular players at club level – in terms of appearances, not toilet visits obviously as no amount of surfing the net would give me those stats- not that I’d want them- are Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and James Milner. While the latter three have enjoyed somewhat successful seasons for different reasons, Carrick has found himself dropped from United for the latter part of the campaign due to poor performances. Aaron Lennon was a true phenomenon at the early part of the season, but with several injury problems has only managed to play in over half his club’s games. While Lennon was for me an absolute must for South Africa his lack of regular football over the past season merely highlights the point that worries me.
If it were one or two players that have missed large parts of their club’s campaigns, there would be little cause for concern, but it isn’t, with several others playing supporting roles for their respective teams.
Shaun Wright-Phillips is arguably not a true first-team pick for Manchester City, having started only 19 games this season, with a further 11 coming from the subs bench. In several high-profile games against the likes of United and Chelsea, when you would expect Roberto Mancini to pick his strongest XI, SWP has found himself left on the sidelines.
Joe Cole’s season is a mixture of sorts of Lennon’s and SWP’s as he’s had injury problems, plus been rested or dropped depending on how you look at it, for several games but has been picked for some important matches. Regardless of the reasons for his absence the chirpy little cockney fella’ has played in less than half his club’s fixtures, which is hardly ideal going into a World Cup.
That brings me on to the strikers. Peter Crouch is ridiculously prolific for England- particularly when there’s a case to be made that he’s not even all that good- so he had to go to South Africa. However the fact that like SWP at City, Crouch is often on the sub’s bench -17 times this season no less- merely highlights that being second-choice at club-level doesn’t seem to bother Capello. When it comes to being second-choice, one man who’s probably grateful to be even that is Emile Heskey. Everyone’s favourite clumsy oaf, has made the non-scoring striker niche his own and earned his place due to supposedly bringing the best out in Rooney. Whether or not that is true is open to debate, personally I’d like to see Wazza on his own up front supported by Steven Gerrard. Despite Gerrard playing the vast majority of Liverpool’s games he’s had a somewhat poor season- although compared to Heskey’s it’s been a glorious triumph.
One thing that is not open to debate is the fact that Heskey is far from being a regular first-team player at Aston Villa having started only one more game than what he’s been sub for.
The argument could be made that not playing a full season has actually helped some of these players, who may feel the benefit in two weeks’ time. After all if the entire England squad had featured in 50-odd games then there’s a good chance that they’d all be knackered and go out in the early knockout stages probably on penalties……oh erm…….
While that may- or probably will, depending on your pessimism/realism- happen the nation now faces the prospect of having a squad at the World Cup who haven’t figured in many of their club’s games this season.
A starting line-up for example of James, Johnson, King, Rio, A.Cole, SWP, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Heskey and Rooney, would consist of two players no longer first teamers for their clubs, another two who’ve missed over half the season through injury, three more who’ve missed over a third and one who’s barely going to be match fit. Call me a cynic but that just gives me a little bit of unease.
Does not playing regularly for your club, or having missed a lot games through injury really matter when it comes to the World Cup? Or is it actually helpful? Answers on a note tied to a brick and thrown through the usual window please.
Read more of Justin’s work at his excellent blog ‘Name on the Trophy’
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