August 23, 2008
Mighty England from a foreign perspective
Following the garbage that came out of the putrid mouth of Harry Redknapp it is time that the English know what the rest of the world thinks of their so called world class players.
Harry the hippopotamus said that the Czech side would not get into the top English sides as well as the England team but which of the so called superstars of England would get into a world XI.
Let us start with the goalkeeper, England have David James, Paul Robinson, Chris Kirkland, Robert Green, Joe Hart Scott Carson and Ben Foster as their best goalkeepers but in truth they are all 2 or 3 notches below the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Petr Cech, Iker Casillas and Julio Cesar amongst others.
The right full back position is occupied by Wes Brown but Gary Neville and Micah Richards are candidates but anyone with any kind of football knowledge or eyes would tell you that there is not a chance in hell that any of those are any where as good as Maicon, Sergio Ramos, Gianluca Zambrotta, Jose Bosingwa and Dani Alves amongst others.
The left back position in all honesty is not 1 that is blessed with a lot of quality and Ashley Cole is perhaps the 1 that could break into the world team but he is not as good as Gael Clichy, Patrice Evra and whilst he is a better athlete than Fabio Grosso, in terms of crossing the ball, his quality is nowhere near. I cannot remember the last time he actually put in a decent cross.
In the central defence where England fans would tell you that they have the best, it is interesting to take John Terry and Rio Ferdinand on merit individually and not with partner.
John Terry is a leader that would put his head and foot where others would not even dare but if you take away Ricardo Carvalho or the organization of his Chelsea teammates then he is not as good as 1st thought. He is slow and gets too tight to his man and could be easily turned. Is he really as good as Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Ricardo Carvalho when he does not have a great partner? The answer is a resounding no.
Rio Ferdinand has proved far too many times that without Sol Campbell at this best, Nemanja Vidic and John Terry, he is not as effective. So would he get into a world 11 on his own merit? That would be another no.
In the midfield where England feel they have the best players in the world so let us see if they are right. On the right hand side they have David Beckham, Shaun Wright-Philips, Aaron Lennon and David Bentley but when you realize that Leo Messi and Ronaldo play in that position; then there is no need to go any further.
Steve Gerrard is the great white hope but his position is more of a box to box player and to be honest that is a British term as none of the great teams have that kind of player as Bryan Robson, Roy Keane were that kind of player. But to compare him to other central midfielders/attacking midfielders/holding midfielders he is not really as good as Kaka in terms of going forward; he does not have the passing ability of Xavi, Deco, Andrea Pirlo, Xavi Alonso, Michael Ballack; lacks the defensive ability of Javier Mascherano and Claude Makele and the energy of Michael Essien so it is very difficult to see where he would fit into a world XI.
Frank Lampard would not get into England’s team if it was picked by people other than Chelsea fans and the FA so there is not a chance of him getting into a world XI.
Joe Cole is England’s most skilful midfielder but there are too many players in the world more skilful than him that it is not worth going into.
Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen are England’s best strikers but they would be up against the likes of Leo Messi, Kun Aguero, Dimitar Berbatov, Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba amongst others so there is little hope.
All in all if we are going to be honest, not 1 England player would get into a world XI and only Ashley Cole, Steve Gerrard, Rio and John Terry stand a chance of being amongst the substitutes but to England fans they have a team full of world class players; yeah, dream on!
