The Numbers Game
At the risk of being accused of reading the tea leaves, there may be some clues as to who will start for England in nine days time from the announcement today of the England squad numbers. First, David James has been handed the #1 shirt by Fabio Capello, indicating that Calamity will start in goal. Peter Crouch has got the coveted #9 shirt, which hints that he'll start up front with #10 Wayne Rooney. Joe Cole, who was thought to have just made it onto the plane has got #11 - could that mean that he'll start on June 12 at the expense of Gareth Barry (#14)? Is Barry even fully fit? At the end of the list are Michael Carrick (#22) who won't expect to play unless injuries force a change of plans and Joe Hart (#23), presumably meaning that he's the third choice keeper behind James and Green. Here is the list in full:
1 David James
2 Glen Johnson
3 Ashley Cole
4 Steven Gerrard
5 Rio Ferdinand
6 John Terry
7 Aaron Lennon
8 Frank Lampard
9 Peter Crouch
10 Wayne Rooney
11 Joe Cole
12 Robert Green
13 Stephen Warnock
14 Gareth Barry
15 Matthew Upson
16 James Milner
17 Shaun Wright-Phillips
18 Jamie Carragher
19 Jermain Defoe
20 Ledley King
21 Emile Heskey
22 Michael Carrick
23 Joe Hart
Any thoughts, chaps?
posted by The Blue Devil @ 10:54 AM
8 Comments:
Oh - and one more thing. Stevie G. at #4 says to me that he'll be in the holding role against the US, allowing Joe Cole to play wide left. Interesting.
Do you think Cole will start in front of Milner?
Did you see that Atlidore was injured today?
Not sure how bad the ankle injury is
Well, I know I'm reading a lot into these squad numbers, but England tends to be a bit more traditional about the numbers than most sides. If that's true, then JC might be a starter on the left ahead of Milner. He was rather good at the weekend.
Yeah - apparently Jozy rolled an ankle Rooney style in training yesterday. They did a scan on it that turned up negative but I hear that the US squad is very nervous about the situation up front.
Injury News!
Rio hurts his knee and walks out of hospital on crutches!!!
Drogba breaks his arm during a friendly. It is near the elbow. Don't know his status. Why couldn't he have done it playing for Chelsea with three games of the season to go!!!!!
Bloody hell - it's like the walking wounded in training right now. I'm wondering who will remain once we get started next Friday.
I don't expect to see Jozy in the friendly tomorrow - it seems like touch and go for him. Now Rio - we desperately need him. And Drogba? Wow!
Rio's out. The five shirt is up for grabs.
Drogba? It's a fractured elbow, so even if it doesn't completely rule him out, it's got to hamper his physical style. Karma's a b-yotch Drogs.
Bugger! That's the first big blow to the effort. Presumably Carradona takes his place; not a bad replacement.
Oh - and Dawson gets the call-up and Stevie G. takes over as skipper. Can we all relax again now? Only eight days to go!
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