Euro 2012 England Team Announced

With Euro 2012 on the horizon, new England manager Roy Hodgson has made his first ever England squad announcement and there certainly are a few talking points. Here we go through the 23 players named who will be looking to bring home the Euro 2012 trophy.

Goalkeepers:
Joe Hart (17 caps)
Rob Green (11)
John Ruddy (0)

Scott Carson, currently playing with Bursapor in Turkey, has been omitted and John Ruddy from Norwich brought in. A deserved call-up I say given his performances for the Canaries this season in the Premier League.

Defenders:
Leighton Baines (7)
Gary Cahill (8-2 goals)
Ashley Cole (93)
Glen Johnson (35-1)
Joleon Lescott (14)
John Terry (72-6)
Phil Jones (4)

Cole will of course be the first choice left-back with Baines his back-up. On the right, Johnson is first choice and with Kyle Walker unavailable due to a broken toe, Hodgson has decided to not call up Micah Richards but instead rely on Jones to cover given his versatility.

Cahill and Lescott will battle it out to partner Terry in central defence. The call-up of Terry has surprised a lot of people given the talk leading up to the squad announcement was that Rio Ferdinand was going to be in instead of Terry. This was due to Terry having lost the England captaincy in February after being sent to a trial, scheduled for the 9^th of July, charged with racially abusing Ferdinand’s brother Anton who plays for QPR.

Terry of course will still not be captain as it was the English FA that stripped him of it, leading to former manager Fabio Capello handing in his resignation out of principle.

Hodgson has said that Ferdinand was omitted for “footballing reasons” and this will mean he has never represented England at the European Championships despite having 81 caps and once dubbed the “new Bobby Moore”. Bear in mind that his own manager at Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, recently questioned publicly the 33-year old’s ability to handle the rigours of tournament football.

Although Ferdinand has had better form lately, I do not think Hodgson has made a mistake here as Terry is less injury prone than Ferdinand and will do as good a job, if not better. Besides, the bloke has pleaded not guilty so who are we to condemn the man for something he is yet to be proven guilty of?

Midfielders:

Gareth Barry (52-3)

Stewart Downing (33)

Steven Gerrard (90-19)

Frank Lampard (90-23)

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (0)

James Milner (24)

Scott Parker (11)

Theo Walcott (22-3)

Ashley Young (19-5)

I am very pleased to see the Ox included despite being uncapped previously as he has been very exciting to watch this season when playing for Arsenal. Not only does he have pace and power, but he also has better awareness than Theo Walcott so I would not expect him to replicate Walcott’s role in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The Ox will be pushing Young, Walcott and Downing for the starting wingers’ berths should Hodgson employ wingers. Milner can also play on the right wing if need be.

Chances are Hodgson will need the pace on the outside given that England lack pace through the middle however with Gerrard, Lampard, Parker and Barry all in their 30’s. Aside from Parker, whose participation is in some doubt due to an Achilles problem, the others are tried, tested and failed at an international tournament.

Perhaps one of Manchester United’s central pairing of Paul Scholes or Michael Carrick should have been considered. Although Scholes at 37 is older, he has shown in coming out of retirement this season that he still has what it takes to play at a high level. Not only that, he has the freshest legs of the lot having only played for four months of the season! Carrick has had his best season in four years but still did not make the standby list.

It just goes to show that the central creativity will have to come primarily from Gerrard or Lampard given that Parker and Barry are more defensive minded midfielders. Gerrard is a certainty to start pretty much every game given that Hodgson has named him as England captain.

I feel that Downing’s inclusion is disappointing especially given the poor season he has had with Liverpool. Perhaps Hodgson did not bother with statistics and stuck with a player he knew from his short time at Liverpool. 36 EPL games, 72 shots, 0 goals and 0 assists, yet he is on the plane?!

Instead of Downing, I would prefer Hodgson give a chance to either Scott Sinclair or even Nathan Dyer. Both of whom have been in fine form for Swansea this season showing that they can mix it with the big boys in the Premier League. Sinclair has 8 goals and 5 assists from 35 appearances in the EPL whilst Dyer has 5 goals and 4 assists from 29 appearances. These boys are in much better form than Downing. Big mistake my boy Roy.

Forwards:

Wayne Rooney (73-28)
Andy Carroll (3-1)

Danny Welbeck (4)

Jermain Defoe (46-15)

Despite carrying a two-game suspension, Rooney was always going to be included and he will be hoping England have either qualified or have a chance to qualify by the time he gets to put his boots on for the final group match. Needless to say, England’s chances of going deep in this tournament rests largely on this young man’s shoulders.

Defoe is a player I like so I am happy Hodgson has been included. He just knows where the goals are.

I can understand why Hodgson has picked Carroll, because you sometimes just need a big target man to hit the ball to when the passing play is not working and the direct route one football is required. Of course, the better alternative would have been Stoke City’s Peter Crouch who had a better EPL record this season (33 games, 10 goals, 2 assists, and 60 shots compared to Carroll’s 35 games, 4 goals, 2 assists and 88 shots) and is a proven international performer with 42 caps and 22 goals. Another alternate big front man that could be considered is Norwich City’s Grant Holt who knows how to use his size upfront. Not only that, he is the second-highest scoring Englishman in the EPL behind Rooney and 3 goals better than the next Englishman Danny Graham of Swansea. Personally, I would have gone for Crouch given his international experience with Holt my second choice. Carroll would be packing his bags for a holiday if I were England manager!

Welbeck’s inclusion for me is simply not a good choice. Despite making it into Manchester United’s starting XI this season and relegating both Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov to the bench, he is still quite a raw talent. He played 30 EPL games, scored 9 goals, had 4 assists and 80 shots.  There are two players who stand out for me and who should be included above Welbeck.

My first choice is Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge who also played 30 EPL games, scored 11 goals, had 3 assists and 93 shots but bear in mind that whilst Welbeck primarily played as an out-an-out central striker, Sturridge was more a right-sided forward playing off his teammates Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres who were in the central striker’s role.

The alternate would be Aston Villa’s captain, Gabriel Agbonlahor who played 33 games, scored 5 goals, had 5 assists and 59 shots. The lower stats are primarily due to Gabby playing more as a winger which gives him added versatility to the England squad.

On standby: Jack Butland, Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge, Phil Jagielka, Jordan Henderson

However, Hodgson has named his squad as is and barring any injuries, nothing will change it.

So what will the first XI look like? It depends on who they are playing really as I see Hodgson switching between a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1 formation.

Against supposed ‘weaker’ opposition: (4-4-2)

                                                Hart

Johnson               Terry                     Cahill                     Cole

Walcott             Gerrard (C)             Parker                 Young

                             Rooney                  Carroll

If Rooney is suspended during use of this formation, Defoe would be expected to line up instead.

Against stronger opposition: (4-5-1)

                                                Hart

Johnson               Terry                     Cahill                     Cole

                                              Parker

Walcott              Gerrard (C)            Barry                     Young

                                              Rooney

If Rooney is suspended during use of this formation, Carroll would be used as the lone target man.

England’s first match from Group D is a tough one against France, followed by Sweden and then Ukraine.

I reckon France, despite their troubles at the last World Cup, will finish top of the group. So that second match against Sweden is the decider to see who will finish second behind France and I think England might do enough to sneak into the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, that is as far as they will go because Spain will be waiting for them then.