Squad Goalkeepers: David de Gea (Manchester United), Pepe Reina (Napoli), Sergio Rico (Sevilla). Defenders: Nacho Fernandez (Real Madrid), Jordi Alba (Barcelona), Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Javi Martinez (Bayern Munich). Midfielders: Koke (Atletico Madrid), Sergi Roberto (Barcelona), Saul Niguez (Atletico Madrid), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Lucas Vazquez (Real Madrid), Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Isco (Real Madrid). Forwards: Jose Callejon (Napoli), Vitolo (Sevilla), Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid), Diego Costa (Chelsea), Nolito (Manchester City). Again. Not one single Athletic player. I'd have Inaki Williams ahead of any of the named forwards. Benat and Garcia are also in good form. Maybe England could give a full cap to Inaki if Spain don't! Laporte has opted for Les Bleus!!!!
Will Barkley manage to get named by Southgate? Ryan Bertrand perhaps? If Fonte was English, he would sure be the number one choice!!! Scott Dann is a possibility.
Is it even the right forum.? We get some tenuous excuses for starting new threads. Reckon Ides has been drinking from the same bowl as JS.
There are Saints supporters on this forum who are fans of Spain. Italy, Scotland, Wales, Croatia and Serbia, who might want to make a comment on the players chosen for their respective national squads. Being a supporter of Spain, I thought I would post a comment. Feel free to comment.
Wouldn't it have been a good idea to have explained that in the first post, rather than a list of Spanish footballers? In any case, the Workd Cup is just under 2 years away, and the squads will probably change many times before the qualifiers are over. I'm not sure this is the right place for this thread, but I'll give it a couple of days before I close it, to see if anyone does want to join in the fun.
When are you going to start a thread Tom? You are often quick to jump on my bizarre comments but it would be good for you to start a thread.
One glaring omission in that squad. Where is the creative midfielder a la Alan Ball? With Lallana injured I would have thought that Ross Barkley would have been in line for a recall. But no!! There is not a playmaker in that squad so expect to see much more of the headless chicken style of play from England. Pity England couldn't adopt Mata as he seems surplus to Spain's needs. Or indeed the fat Nasri who has long been forgotten by the French.
Also surprised by the continued presence of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka at the expense of Scott Dann.
Maybe Southgate still thinks Johnson is still a Liverpool player, so is thus an automatic pick. As a side issue Tom you may have seen the BBC video interviewing Tufnell and Vaughan picking their squad for the tour of Bangladesh and India. Neither of them had any idea about players who were in form for their counties as neither mentioned Nick Gubbins who was central to Middlesex winning the title. So perhaps Southgate is about as informed as "Tuffers and Vaughan."
I'm sad to say that there are a lot of very average players in there. Very Premier League-esque in style: loads of pace and strength but no technique or creativity.
That has been the case ever since 1992 "Odd" The last time England had a world class midfield was in 1990 with Platt, Gascoigne, Barnes Robson (sadly injured) And anyone who mentions Beckham and Gerrard being in the same class as the ones that I have mentioned does not have a clue.