Who should be in the England World Cup Squad?

The World Cup draw has been made and the English face a tough challenge to qualify for the next round. Drawn with Uruguay, Italy and Costa Rica the Three Lions will not be fancied to proceed to the knock out round. So for the next 5 months Mr. Hodgson will be picking through every tiny detail so he can decide on who to take to Manaus in the middle of the Amazon.

At the minute Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney are certainties, along with captain Steven Gerrard. But who else should make the squad? You have to look at who is in form and who is out of form. This logic excludes any Manchester United player but that doesn’t mean that Phil Jones and Tom Cleverley can’t go above and beyond the call of duty.

Do Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole merit a place? Has Glen Johnson done enough for Liverpool? These players haven’t done exceptionally well, but they have been getting the job done.

Now you look at the Arsenal team. A team currently doing better than expected. You should be taking Jack Wilshere. Theo Walcott? He has been injured for a while, but can someone else take his wide midfield position?

Does Jermaine Defoe merit a place on the plane despite being a substitute most weeks for Spurs? He likely won’t be far away from the squad.

Gary Hooper has scored a few goals recently for Norwich. He also had an impressive record for Celtic as well and he’s the only player who has played for the Old Firm and scored in every competition from League Two upwards in England, including the FA and League cup and in the SPL, Europa league and the Champions league. Now that’s a stat you can’t argue with. He might not be the fastest. He might not be the tallest. But one thing he does do is score goals. He reached the Champions League final 16 last year. Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck didn’t. He still hasn’t had an England cap. In my eyes he deserves one. If his first is at the World Cup then so be it, because he is a natural poacher.

His former team mate at Celtic, Fraser Forster has had a meteoric rise to glory as well. He may have been honoured by receiving his first cap already but there’s surely more to come from him. His glowing performances in the Champions League over the last two seasons have been phenomenal. He has done a lot better than his rival Joe Hart of Manchester City in the same period of time.

Fraser isn’t perfect. He does have one weakness in his game. For a guy of 6 feet 7 inches he really should be commanding his box a lot better than he does. It’s like he is afraid to come off his line. Something David Seaman shouldn’t have done in Japan and Korea. But over the next few months I’m sure Celtic’s goalkeeping coaches will be working on this with the big Geordie.

So who would I take to the Amazon if I were the England manager?

GK:

Fraser Forster (number one)
Joe Hart
John Ruddy

Def:

Glen Johnson
Kyle Walker
Phil Jagielka
Gary Cahill
Joleon Lescott
Leighton Baines
Ashley Cole
Mid:

Steven Gerrard
James Milner
Andros Townsend
Frank Lampard
Jack Wilshere
Ross Barkley
Adam Lallana
Jordan Henderson

Str:

Wayne Rooney
Daniel Sturridge
Gary Hooper
Jermaine Defoe
Rickie Lambert

If England don’t win the World Cup with this squad I won’t be flustered. It’s not my job. I’m Scottish so I would be too busy partying from the night England got put out. But England have every chance to cause an upset just like Iran, Costa Rica, Argentina and Germany do. Let’s see if they can pull it off.

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