Name v Form

With the groups for the UEFA Euro 2016 announced Roy Hodgson can begin to get an idea of what he will do to combat against the teams in our group. The Three Lions have been drawn against Russia, Slovakia and our high rising neighbours Wales. Some fans are already labelling this an ‘easy’ group, others stating it will be a real test for us. To me it seems it could go either way.

After winning all of our qualifying matches, being only the fifth team to do so in the Euros, England look more than ready for Roy Hodgson’s third tournament as manager. If any of the big national sides such as Germany or Spain had done this then it would be labelled as a statement of intent and they will be sure to dominate. So why isn’t it happening to England? Why is there less pressure in this tournament than any we’ve been in over the last 40 years?

I can’t help but think it’s because we have no saviour. That one world class player who you think will drag us through games by the scruff of our neck, player’s like Bobby Charlton, Beckham and Gazza who have the quality to take on the world’s best and win nine times out of ten. In recent years we’ve relied on Wayne Rooney who never really showed his class in the big stages for England, scoring his first goal in an international tournament last year in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

So who can we rely on? For me this is an ideal opportunity to give in form players a chance over the so called “top four teams” players. When players like Phil Jones are getting in the England squad over lads like Scott Dann and Ryan Shawcross it makes you wondering what I need to do to get an England call up. Shawcross has kept five clean sheets in six Premier League matches since his return and Scott Dann has been a wall at the back and has contributed to Palace currently being in 6th place.

Then of course there’s lads like Danny Drinkwater and Marc Albrighton who have both been contributing to Leicester meteoric rise to the top of the Premier League. Have they not done as well as Raheem Sterling who is struggling to find consistency since his £49mil move in the Summer.

On that topic it baffles me that players move to ‘larger’ clubs and seem to earn less club appearances but gain more international appearances e.g. Adam Lallana, Danny Ings, Luke Shaw, Ashley Young, Scott Parker, etc. Surely playing first team football is what’s required for England players and not whether they have a nice spot on Man City’s bench?

I’m glad to see a few Spurs players who are in form getting call ups who are against the norm such as Eric Dier, Ryan Mason and the future prospect of Dele Alli. As well as Harry Kane, who surely will be leading the line for many years for England. I actually criticized Tottenham the other day for being “too foreign” before realising what I’d said and then hanging my head in shame…

~ There’s also Danny Rose, Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend that I’d left out. The beer was flowing, that’s my excuse ~

The main battle of Name v Form is Vardy and Kane up front or sacrifice one of them for Rooney? Clearly England’s captain has been in dreadful form compared to the other two so what does Hodgson do in this situation? Now I’m one of those people that says form over name and I’m also one of the people that say if you’re not going to play a lad in his favoured position then don’t play him. So if I was England boss Wazza would have to make do on the bench...but I’m not England boss...and probably wouldn’t be for long making controversial decisions like that.

You’d think it be common sense that someone in form now would be playing more than someone who used to play well last year or five years ago but sadly the examples I’ve provided above prove that's not the case. Hopefully it changes in the future but if history is anything to go off it doesn’t look likely.

Anyone who agrees that England should be made up of our on form players then Tweet me @ThePenaltyKing1 with #NAMEvFORM and say what big name player you’d replace for an in form player like the examples I’ve given above. Also if anyone thinks I’ve missed a player or thinks their team have a lad who’s good enough for England then feel free to comment below.

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Cheers for reading.