Tuesday 1st June 2010

As I write this, news is slowly filtering through about the seven unlucky England players who will not be heading out to South Africa for this month's World Cup. An official announcement is not expected to be made for another hour or so yet, but sources tell us that Leighton Baines, Tom Huddlestone, Scott Parker, Michael Dawson, Theo Walcott, Darren Bent and Adam Johnson will all be heading home from the Austrian training camp, whilst the rest fly off to South Africa. The only surprise there is Theo Walcott, who was a shock inclusion when Sven Goran-Eriksson named his World Cup aquad four years ago.
So now we know 23 men who a nation pins their hopes on are, can they write themselves in the history books? Here's how I rate each area out of 10.


Goalkeepers - Robert Green, Joe Hart, David James.
6/10

With just 11 days to go until England's first game against the USA we're still not completely sure who will line up between the sticks. Joe Hart has impressed me the most, having had a great season at Birmingham and he has done well in the two recent friendly games against Mexico and Japan. Robert Green perhaps would've been expected to take the number one jersey this time last year, but he hasn't had the best of seasons with West Ham and he didn't do himself any favours by becoming the first ever England keeper to get sent off against Ukraine last October. David James is just unpredictable. What is worrying is that none of these three men can be described as world class; Italy have Buffon and Spain have Casillas, so this is an area we're definitely lacking in compared to other contenders.

Defenders - Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, Stephen Warnock, Matthew Upson.
7/10

In Ferdinand, Terry and Cole England have three quarters of a defence who have played together regularly on the international stage for the best part of six years and Glen Johnson at right back mades us look pretty solid at the back. Ledley King and Jamie Carragher should be more than capable understudies at centre back, but I'm concerned about the lack of cover for Ashley Cole at left back, with Stephen Warnock having just one England cap to his name.

Midfielders - Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Joe Cole, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon, James Milner.
9/10

Providing Gareth Barry can get match fitness in time, England have one of the strongest midfields in the tournament. Lampard and Gerrard both have a great deal of experience at international level and with Lennon, Milner, Wright-Phillips and Cole all in the squad there are plenty of options on the wings. Michael Carrick did well in 2006, catching the eye of Manchester United, who went on to sign him for £16 million, but I can't help but wonder if he is past his best, as he hasn't even been considered a regular starter for his club recently.

Strikers - Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey.
8/10

As I'm sure you've read everywhere else, Rooney is crucial to any success this summer and looking at his form over the last year he has to be considered as one of the top 5 players in the world at the moment. But who to play alongside him? I think with his excellent record in an England shirt (21 goals in 38 games) Peter Crouch should start, but as is the case in goal, that spot besides Rooney is perhaps one of the areas we are lacking true world class quality. Nevertheless, having scored more goals in qualifying than any other nation England should be sufficent here.

The coach - Fabio Capello.
9/10

The Italian has done a phenomonal job since taking over from Steve McClaren over two years ago, picking up the players when they were at their lowest ebb after failing to qualify for Euro 2008. Capello has instilled discipline into the whole squad and he is not afraid to change tactics when things aren't going right. We're all hoping he can add a World Cup to is already impressive resume this summer.

That gives England an overall score of 39 out of 50 and whilst I haven't looked at other squads in as much depth I think it would be fair to say that only Brazil and Spain would score in their 40s. I'll stand by the prediction I made at the beginning of the year that England will reach the semi finals before losing on penalties to Brazil and talking of the dreaded P word I really hope that Fabio has had the team practicing from the spot. If our first choice taker can miss two in a row (Lampard's miss against Japan on Sunday follows on from his miss in the FA Cup final) then I'm not sure what that says about the rest of the squad. Please no more penalty heartbreak!