More England squad confusion

I know we all think that we could manage the national side better than whoever the man actually in the role can and I know that we all have different opinions about who should be selected and who shouldn’t, but I have to say my jaw dropped in amazement when I saw the England squad named to play Montenegro on 12th October.

Absence

Newcastle’s young striker Andy Carroll had been left out of the England under twenty-one squad so we all knew that he would be selected for the first team squad in the injury absence of Jermain Defoe, Bobby Zamora and others.

Assuming that Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent, or possibly Peter Crouch, will start up front I think we all felt that twenty-one year old Carroll, who has made an impressive start to his Premier League career, would benefit hugely from going along with the squad, even if he wasn’t involved in the game.

Uncapped

Then the squad is announced and instead of the uncapped youngster who may be a big part of England’s future being selected, we find that Fabio Capello has gone for another big uncapped target man. He has gone for thirty-three year old Bolton skipper Kevin Davies.

Now, I am a big fan of Kevin Davies and I have always rated him highly. Indeed, when England were keen to play with a big target man at times over the past ten years I have thought he has been slightly unlucky to be overlooked. Now, however, there is no possible reasonable explanation for his inclusion. He is unlikely to play, he will not benefit from the experience and the chances of him being selected again or playing in tournaments in two or four years time are non-existent.

Claims

I am not surprised by the inclusion of Wayne Rooney, although Capello’s previous claims that he would only select players who are fit and playing well, seems to be called into question.

I am surprised by the inclusion of Joe Cole. He was hardly given a kick at the World Cup and since then he has performed very averagely in a very poor side. What exactly has happened to make Capello think he is now the man for a job?

Hangover

In a similar way, the inclusion of Robert Green is strange. He has played reasonably well in his last two games but prior to that he has looked to be suffering an enormous hangover from his torrid World Cup.

When you look at Capello’s claim that he will only select fit. In form players who are playing regularly, you also have to look at the inclusion of Rio Ferdinand, Joleon Lescott and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Confused

All in all I am really confused by this squad. The sad thing is that the likely line-up will look something like,

Hart, Johnson, Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Lennon, Barry, Gerrard, Wright-Phillips, Rooney, Bent. That will be nine players who are tried, tested and failed in big tournaments, one player deemed not good enough just a few months ago and is now apparently a major player for the team*, and Joe Hart, who should have been playing in the World Cup anyway.

Is any England manager capable of looking to the future?

England squad to face Montenegro on 12 October:
Ben Foster (Birmingham City), Robert Green (West Ham United), Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), John Terry (Chelsea), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa)

Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Joe Cole (Liverpool), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham Hotspur), Adam Johnson (Manchester City), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Ashley Young (Aston Villa)

Darren Bent (Sunderland), Peter Crouch (Tottenham Hotspur), Kevin Davies (Bolton Wanderers), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

*Talking about Darren Bent, Capello said, “Bent is back In front of goal, he is really dangerous. He played 20 minutes against Switzerland and scored an important goal. Now he is training really well. He is probably one of the important players for the future.”