One thing I wanted to do was to show an England team which was based on caps as an interesting exercise.
This team would play in a good old 4 – 3 – 3 formation. So lets dive in and see the team
Number | Position | Name | Caps |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Goalkeeper | Peter Shilton | 125 |
2 | Right back | Gary Neville | 85 |
5 | Central defence | Billy Wright | 105 |
6 | Central defence | Bobby Moore | 108 |
3 | Left back | Ashley Cole | 107 |
7 | Midfield | David Beckham | 115 |
4 | Midfield | Steven Gerrard | 114 |
8 | Midfield | Frank Lampard | 106 |
9 | Forward | Bobby Charlton | 106 |
10 | Forward | Wayne Rooney | 120 |
11 | Forward | Michael Owen | 89 |
There you go a staggering 1180 caps between all of the players above.
I’m pretty sure you would agree that on paper that team would be a helluva difficult team to beat.
You have England captains and club captains and with regards goals scored – the players above managed to score 214 goals for their country which is a very good tally.
Now, you have Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in midfield together which was supposedly a problem for England – something which I always felt was nonsense and was a managerial issue. The best players can interchange, England didn’t do that and bring out the best in the two players.
Are there any positions that could be changed – lets look at these if it was not cap based. This is based on the fact that you could change players but the players above are very good candidates. Lets see an example, you could pick Rio Ferdinand rather than Bobby Moore but for me the latter was the better player although its tough as we are talking different eras.
Michael Owen – not the top scorer in that position, you can make an argument for Harry Kane with 50 goals and Gary Lineker with 48 goals. Never mind Jimmy Greaves or Alan Shearer. Tough position.
David Beckham – If you moved Bobby Charlton into midfield, you can fit in one of the players above. What about Ray Wilkins for some grit or Martin Peters from the World cup winning team.