The ‘English’ Premier League

For the past month Fabio Capello has been attending matches up and down the country to size up his options in preperation for his first squad announcement this coming weekend. So what would he have made of our little circus? How much choice does he really have?

 A bit of number crunching from last weekend’s premiership matches (Sat 19th) shows that just over 35% of players involved in the 10 matches were English. Now, for all the moaning about not enough English players in the Premiership, it strikes me that over a 1-in-3 choice is not actually bad, certainly not to be sniffed at. 23 of the 114 Englishmen in matchday squads were unused subs, but if every week involves a similar 91 to choose from, is that really that terrible? Let’s break this down further…

I would note that there are a number of English players who would have almost certainly been involved in the games if not for injuries and/or suspensions, here I’m thinking John Terry, Keiron Dyer, Michael Johnson, Joey Barton, Alan Smith, Nicky Butt to name a few. At the same time however, the African Nations have depleted many of the squads of a few extra foreigners that may also have taken their place.

The best place for Englishness last week was the JJB stadium, where 13 English players were involved in the game between Wigan and Everton. That’s around half the players on show. Even discounting Titus Bramble it still comes out on top.  The worst ground was predictably Craven Cottage, where Fulham and Arsenal used a grand total of 3 English players (all Fulham), and Justin Hoyte sat unused on the Arsenal bench. Almunia, however, did play…

 Aston Villa and Everton both used 8 Englishmen, and West Ham started with 7. These are clubs in the top half of the table and doing well, and even if the ‘Big 4′ perhaps lack Englishness (13 used between them, 5 for Man Utd) It cannot be said that there is a lack of competitive English football being played. It would seem more accurate to say that previous England managers have been afraid to look beyond the big guns, as, with the exception of the retired Carragher, all 13 of the players used by the ‘elites’ have been regularly involved in England squads.

So if Capello really wants to make the most of a clean England slate, I would urge him to look beyond the superstars, and consider players who are consistently gaining top-flight, and in the case of Everton, Spurs, Blackburn and even Bolton players, European experience. Who knows? Maybe next Saturday we’ll be looking at a squad of Warnocks and Osmans rather than Gerrards and Lampards? It’s only a friendly after all.