Not Such A Strong Squad

It's been said for a while now that the current England football team is the strongest for a long time and that now is the best chance we've ever had of repeating our 1966 World Cup triumph.

Proponents of this view point to the strength of our midfield (Lampard, Beckham, Gerrard) and the number of quality central defenders (Terry, Campbell, Ferdinand, Ledley King, etc. etc,) as evidence of the truth of this. And yes, we do have some extremely good midfielders and central defenders, plus a couple of world class strikers in Owen and Rooney.

However, looking at proposed teams for the next qualifying match against Austria, this claim really doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. What other really top class strikers do we have aside from Owen and Rooney ? Um...none. What cover do we have if Paul Robinson is injured. Um...David James.

Who do we have to replace Gary Neville ? Um...Luke Young ! Who do we have playing on the left of midfield. Um...no one most of the time. In short, we have some extremely good players and - with the exception of central defence - no real quality cover for any of them. This a World Cup winning soccer team does not make.