England ‘Hopefuls’ XI (And Subs): Players Who Will Need To Impress Roy Hodgson This Season Ahead Of World Cup

Posted by

Defence

With most of England’s talent pool seemingly made up of midfielders, we’ve gone for just three at the back in this lineup, which features Manchester City pair Micah Richards and Joleon Lescott either side of Tottenham captain Michael Dawson.

Richards looked like an England star of the future when he first broke onto the international scene as a youngster back in 2006, although injuries and some inconsistent form with his club have seen him pick up only 13 caps in total, and feature only very sporadically over the last few years. Still, as a very capable right-back or centre-back, if Richards can get his place back at City, or maybe even make a January move elsewhere, he has the potential to make himself an important part of the team if he finds his best form again this season.

His team-mate Lescott is also rather unfortunate to be out of the England fold due to issues with his club. Despite looking one of City’s most solid defenders in their title-winning season of 2011/12, he was dropped by Roberto Mancini the following season and is seemingly not rated highly by new manager Manuel Pellegrini either. An experienced and versatile player, Lescott had really started to enjoy being an England regular over the last couple of years, and now seems unfairly out of the picture, with a difficult challenge to get back in to Roy Hodgson’s plans.

Dawson, with only four caps to his name, is bizarrely out of the picture with England, despite being a key player for Tottenham for so many years now. One of the best centre-backs in the league and the captain of a top-five side, it is hard to know what more the 29-year-old can do to get on that plane next summer.

In goal, promising youngster Jack Butland may feel he is in with a real chance of displacing the struggling Joe Hart, but his situation at Stoke at the moment means he is in danger of not getting the regular football he’ll so desperately need at this stage of his career. A loan move to the Championship has been mooted, but will Hodgson consider one so inexperienced?

Next Page
Page 2 of 5
Prev Page
More Stories England National Team Manchester City FC