England World Cup squad 2014: Selection conundrums

Just who do you pick and leave behind? Choosing the right men in the right positions in a World Cup squad is a tough job

World Cup 2014: Squad selection conundrums

The fallacy of selecting a World Cup squad is that you need two players for every outfield position. Almost invariably, this encourages countries to pick too many defenders.

At the last World Cup, 80 outfield players went to South Africa but failed to play a single minute. Of those, 44 – more than half – were defenders.

This is a pattern mirrored with England. Since 1980, 24 of the 40 outfield players picked for a squad but not appearing in the tournament were defenders, including the perennially unfortunate Viv Anderson, who suffered this fate three times.

The strategy of picking two men for every position rests on the outdated notion that football is an 11-man game.

Roy Hodgson regards not taking Christophe Bonvin, a decent winger, to the 1994 World Cup with Switzerland as one of the biggest errors of his international career.

“I made a big mistake,” he reflected later. “At the time, my thinking was that if you want two right-backs, you have to choose the next best right-back. I do regret taking players who hardly featured, on the basis that he was the next best player in that position.”

But in an international tournament, you need different options from the bench. Of the 76 most frequent substitutes in this season’s Premier League, only two – Nacho Monreal and Aleksandar Kolarov – were defenders.

By packing the squad with defenders, you reduce your ability to change the game from the bench. Too many defenders and you guarantee yourself passengers, as Martin Kelly, Leighton Baines, Phil Jones and Phil Jagielka all found at Euro 2012.

Or the case of 2006, when Michael Owen’s injury left England with a choice of an unfit Wayne Rooney, an uncapped Theo Walcott and Peter Crouch up front.

So has Hodgson heeded this advice? To an extent; seven defenders seems about right, given that England have no midfielders who can slot into central defence (James Milner could play right-back in a pinch.) Four strikers seems one too few, but pleasingly Hodgson seems to have erred on the side of attack when picking his fringe players.

Put it this way: if England are 1-0 down in their final group game, who would your rather see coming off the bench: Jon Flanagan or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?

Compiled by: M.D