THE ALL-ENGLISH CHALLENGE
All week Gameof2halves will be focusing on Fabio Capello’s first England squad selection, culminating in my predictions and recommendations at the end of the week.
Following on from yesterday’s look at an average Premiership weekend, today sees the birth of the All-English challenge. With increasing calls for limits on overseas players in matchday squads (unworkable) I thought I would take it a step further and consider how some teams in the Premiership would fare having to field a completely English XI. Liverpool and Arsenal need not apply.
Below are the 5 teams I would consider to be able to field the strongest sides, in no particular order:
Manchester Utd England XI: Foster
Neville Brown Ferdinand Simpson
Eagles Hargreaves Carrick Scholes
Campbell (Hull) Rooney
Perhaps a little lightweight in places but still a pretty formidable side packed with experience.
Aston Villa England XI: Carson
Cahill Knight Davies Barry
Gardner Reo-Coker
Young Agbonglahor
Harewood Moore
Does not severely reduce the quality of their usual team, although they might miss Martin Laursen.
West Ham England XI: Green
Davenport Ferdinand Upson
Dyer Etherington
Parker Noble Bowyer
Ashton Cole
Pretty much full strength Hammers.
Everton England XI: Ruddy
Hibbert Stubbs Lescott Baines
Neville Jagielka Osman
Johnson Anichebe Vaughan
I have no idea what Ruddy’s like as a goalkeeper but didn’t he save a penalty once? Also, Anichebe is technically Nigerian, but played for England Schoolboys. Could slot Dan Gosling in somewhere instead.
Tottenham England XI: Robinson
Huddlestone Dawson King Gardner
Lennon Jenas O’Hara Routledge
Defoe Bent
Hit and miss, but looks pretty solid.
So these are the sides that I would imagine would challenge for an All-English title. What strikes me is how a number of Premiership sides would struggle to even field an English XI, and I would imagine there are a number of Championship sides that would be better equiped for this challenge than the likes of Arsenal. But what do you think? Vote below for which of those sides you think would come out on top. Or do you disagree with my selections? Have I left players out? Or do you think you could build another club side that could challenge? A Newcastle midfield of Milner, Butt, Barton, Smith maybe? Or a patchwork Chelsea side with Joe Cole upfront? Stoke? Vote and leave comments below…
| All-English Challenge title winners 1) Man Utd 2) Aston Villa 3) West Ham 4) Everton 5) Tottenham 6) Other (please leave comment)View ResultsMake your own poll |
2 responses so far ↓
“Full English Please” - Could your club field an All-England 11? « Injury Time Winner // January 28, 2008 at 11:58 am
[...] or emerging through the youth side, but could your club field a side with just Englishmen in it? As Alex at gameof2halves has calculated a few teams in the Premiership could not only field an all English [...]
Alex // January 28, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It was pointed out to me that Lee Carsley is an Irish international, whoops. corrected.