Can you name me 6 top quality current England players?

I can only really think of

Baines
Gerrard
Barkley (early days but has the potential)
Walcott (when fit)
Rooney
Sturridge

 

there are loads and loads of top quality English players, but sadly.....

no WORLD class players.

 

Cahill
Terry
Lampard
Oxlade Chamberlain

 

'Top quality' and 'world class' are just so subjective.

You could name the whole England squad as by the very nature of being an international could be considered to make them top quality in comparison to thousands of other players.

IMO if we are talking world class I would agree with DT, we haven't got any, although I do think Barkley and Shaw, maybe Ox, could be in the future.

 

In my opinion not one England player would get into a top International side (Spain / Brazil / Argentina, etc).

 

I don't think we've any. Steven Gerrard was from about 2004-2012 & although he's still a cracking player he's not what he once was.

Cole was as well but them days are gone.

Rooney's shown it in flashes but I'm not sure I'd call him world class. He's certainly not delivered in major tournaments apart from Euro 2004.

I can't think of anyone else, Baines is a world class attacking full back but I think his defending stops him from been described as world class.

From the last 10 years I think Scholes, Sol & Rio were world class in their primes & I'd say Beckham, Lampard & Owen were fringe world class in their primes.

 

Baines - maybe
Gerrard - passed his best
Barkley (early days but has the potential) - you're having a laugh
Walcott (when fit) - maybe
Rooney - No
Sturridge - Yes

The worst thing is England have no better players than this. We're gonna get eaten alive in Brazil

 

Defining top class or world class is very subjective. We have no one in the first echelon of players Mess/Ronaldo/Suarez. No one in the second tier Javi/Sweinstiger/Iniesta etc. Sturridge and Rooney are probably at the top of the next layer of international players beyond that not much. The Premiershit has completely destroyed he England team as there is no room for our players to develop these days

 

Rooney
Walcott

can't think of any more.

 

Not sure if I agree with the idea that the Premier League destroys the England team

Younger players can play on loan in the Championship to develop or, if they're good enough, in a first team in the prem. Loads of examples of this, i.e. Cleverley, Wickham etc etc

I think the problem runs deeper than that.

Surely if players like Walcott, Wilshere, Oxlaide etc have come through and they are pitting their wits against genuine world class players every week, that can only improve them as players.

The players are coming through, its just that they're not quite good enough.

The so called "golden generation" of 2002/2004/2006 and the 98 team was genuinely strong in terms of ability and could/should have made it to at least a semi finals.

 

Re: Not sure if I agree with the idea that the Premier League destroys the England te

Percentage of English players playing in the premier league is down to about 25 percent which is much lower than comparable European countries therein lies the problem.

 

Re: Not sure if I agree with the idea that the Premier League destroys the England te

There is not one single England player that would get in a "Best World Cup Squad".

We are an average team, at best.

And my interest in international football has disappeared.

 

Re: Not sure if I agree with the idea that the Premier League destroys the England te

Luckily, having world class players is not a prerequisite to winning a tournament (see Greece 2004 for details). Having some excellent players over the last 15 years has got us nowhere. Perhaps with (on paper at least) a pretty ordinary bunch free of the usual weight of expectation, we'll perform a little better. There have been some mildly encouraging signs in qualifiers, particularly with the Rooney, Sturridge, Wellbeck combination. I worry about us defensively but again a lack of individual quality can be overcome by team unity and defensive solidity (see Flickers team last season for details)

Our defeatist attitude regarding the national team, particularly from the press does us no favours. I'll be supporting us in the Summer like I always do.

 

I believe we blew our biggest chance in 2002. After Ronaldinho got sent off we didn't have one shot on target in 30 minutes. The semi's that year were made up of Brazil, the worst German side in my lifetime, Turkey & South Korea. I'm not sure we'll ever get a better chance than that. Eriksson & the players bottled it

 

Totally agree Django, we should have won it. 98 team were very competitive too, if only Beckham hadn't been sent off.