World Cup 2010: Who would make your England squad?

GK Green, Hart, James

DF Johnson, Richards, Terry, Ferdinand, Upson, Lescott, Baines, Cole

MF Gerrard, Lampard, Barry, Carrick, Milner, Lennon, Young, Cole

FW Rooney, Defoe, Crouch, Agbonlahor
 
GK: Joe Hart
GK: Paul Robinson
GK: Ben Foster

DEF: Ashley Cole
DEF: John Terry
DEF: Wes Brown
DEF: Rio Ferdinand
DEF: Mathew Upson
DEF: Glen Johnson
DEF: Gareth Barry

MID: Scott Parker
MID: Joe Cole
MID: Frank Lampard
MID: Ashley Young
MID: Steven Gerrard
MID: Shaun Wright-Phillips
MID: Aaron Lennon

FW: Wayne Rooney
FW: Jermain Defoe
FW: Carlton Cole
FW: Bobby Zamora
FW: Gabi Agbonlahor
FW: Peter Crouch
 
Ledley King has been told that England coach Fabio Capello is planning to include him in his World Cup squad if he stays clear of injury before the tournament.Standard Sport understands King has been assured Capello wants to take him to South Africa even though he has spent lengthy spells on the sidelines since he sustained a knee injury four years ago.

The Tottenham defender is unable to play more than one game for Harry Redknapp's side in a week and barely trains because of the problem.

But King, who has won 19 caps, has impressed on every occasion he has played for Spurs this season and has significantly appeared in more League games (17) than England captain Rio Ferdinand (11) has for Manchester United.

The 29-year-old has only just returned to the side following a thigh injury but inspired Tottenham to a 2-1 win over Arsenal earlier this month and was their best player in the 3-1 loss to Manchester United on Saturday.

Capello is convinced King can play a major part this summer but will only consider him if he doesn't suffer any further setbacks. King hasn't played for his country since 2007 but Capello did name him in his squad to face Slovakia and Ukraine 15 months ago, only for his injury problems to force him to withdraw.

The situation had led to an unseemly club-versus-country row between the England coach and Redknapp but the latter is now encouraging Capello to pick him as well.

Only at the weekend Redknapp said: "I think he will go to the World Cup. Ledley can play every six days and there are six days between games at the World Cup."

The England coach agrees and believes he will provide strong competition, as well as good back-up, for his first-choice centre-halfs, Ferdinand and John Terry.

King is already a certainty to make the provisional 30-man squad which will be named on 16 May.

His fitness will be closely scrutinised in the pre-World Cup training camp in Austria as well as the two friendlies against Mexico on 24 May and Japan six days later.

If he makes it through without any major complications he is then expected to make the official 23-man squad, which will be announced on 1 June.
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Source: London Evening Standard
 
Makes no sense whatsoever to take King to the WC. The games will be coming around every ~5days and we already know that even if he doesn't have any setbacks, he can barely play a game every 7 or 8 days.

Had Ferdinand been fully fit then maybe you could take a gamble on King but you can't really afford to have question marks over two players in the squad let alone two players in one position.
 
It's an awkward one eh...
King would have been one hell of a player if he had functioning knees, but in a squad of 23, can you take the risk!? Personally I'd take Dawson, he's been very dependable for them this season, and it's always hard to play with a different partner every game.
 
King is imo, one of the best English defenders we have.

He's also crippled and can't play more then one game a week or so. You can't take him, he'd be a risk.
 
GK: James
GK: Robinson
GK: Hart

DEF: A.Cole
DEF: Terry
DEF: Ferdinand
DEF: Johnson
DEF: Lescott
DEF: Upson
DEF: Baines

MID: Barry
MID: Lampard
MID: Gerrard
MID: Milner
MID: Lennon
MID: Walcott
MID: J. Cole
MID: Carrick

FW: Rooney
FW: Heskey
FW: Defoe
FW: Bent
FW: Crouch
 
Shamikebab said:
out of practice, he's always been better in the centre.
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When Brown was a consistant starter at RB two or three seasons ago he had a really good year imo (he was in that position for Moscow wasnt he?)..he injured himself pretty early last year and hasnt recovered a starting position

He has done ok in the centre - but doesnt have enough run of games before one of Vidic/Rio /Evans comes back to drop him back (or he injures himself)

One crock in central defence is ok, but personally wouldnt take two for any reason. Unfortunately that means no King - who is a decent player, but he would need to play more than once a week (and train heavily too) which sounds as if its impossible currently
 
It's being widely reported that Carragher has been or is close to being persuaded to come out of International retirement by Capello and will be in the squad for the WC.

Gut feeling is that this means that King is likely to be included in the squad too and with doubts over both his and Ferdinand's fitness, Carra will go as a 5th CB but also as cover for Johnson.
 
If Carragher makes it to the WC over Dawson or even if he makes it at all would make it the biggest travesty since Walcott in 2006
 
Not really because Dawson can't play RB and towards the end of the season Carra started to get back to his best.

Oh and Dawson's **** :p

edit: Seriously though, as I said, if Carra goes then it will probably be as the 2nd RB that can also cover CB.

Carra's opening himself up to a lot of criticism if he does come out of the retirement just for the finals though.
 
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Some I'm convinced should go:

David James
Joe Hart

A. Cole

G. Johnson

Terry
King
Dawson

A. Johnson
Lampard
Milner
Gerrard

Rooney
Crouch

Lots of places up for grabs I think :)
 
BaZ87 said:
Not really because Dawson can't play RB and towards the end of the season Carra started to get back to his best.

Oh and Dawson's **** :p

edit: Seriously though, as I said, if Carra goes then it will probably be as the 2nd RB that can also cover CB.

Carra's opening himself up to a lot of criticism if he does come out of the retirement just for the finals though.
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back in the day i used to rate Carragher as a good solid CB and a good backup for England

he was never quite good enough to start with the other players we had at the time like Sol Campbell :mad: and King before he lost his knees

now hes gotten older and worse (IMO) so there's no way he should be in contention to go the world cup especially when we have so many other younger options who need the experience

also i know he can technically play as a RB as well but it doesnt mean he should

last time he played RB for england he kept slowing the play down cause as soon as he got the ball he only passed it sideways or backward
 
JohnnyG said:
Carragher can **** off, he's made his bed when it comes to England.
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True but there's no indication that Carra approached Capello about this. The talk is that Capello's made a last ditch plea to him and that Carra still hasn't accepted.
Sem said:
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I agree, he's not as good as he was and he had a really poor start to the season too, but the last few months he's played fairly well.

As for playing RB, he's clearly limited there but other than Johnson we have no other natural rb's available and he can do a job there if needed.

The key to this is that he can cover both RB and CB; if we're going to take 4 CB's and 2 of them have massive doubts over their fitness then you need somebody in another position that can cover CB too.
 
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