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2018 FIFA WORLD CUP: England national team

2018 FIFA WORLD CUP PREVIEW – ENGLAND NATIONAL TEAM



Summary of the Team


The England national team are looking to right the wrongs of an over a decade of horrible ends to their tournaments including such as 4-1 defeat to Germany in 2010, missing out on knockouts in 2014, losing to Iceland in the 2016 Euros. Led by Gareth Southgate, England have taken a lot of new breed of players to this world cup in hopes of having a good run at the world cup for the first time in what seems a very long time. England have taken young players such as Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Pickford, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford who will be willing to prove the whole world what they’re made of. England will be led by their new captain Harry Kane who had his career high season in goals once again hitting the net THIRTY TIMES in the Premier League and he will be hoping to put the whole world on notice during his first world cup of his career. England won’t only have to rely on Harry Kane because they have a bunch of other good players such as Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker, Jordan Henderson, Jamie Vardy and many more who have all had great seasons and will be carrying the nations shoulders. There has been a few controversial selections such as Burnley defenders Tarkowski and Mee both missing out after having an incredible season for Cahill who was terrible for Chelsea, or Jack Wilshere missing out after having what was probably his healthiest and best season for Arsenal while Adam Lallana made it after being injury prone all year and completely out of form, but still with a mix of top quality players and very good youth England will be expected to have a world cup that their fans can remember. Nobody expects them to win, but they simply cannot afford to have anything similar to the 2016 Euros. Quarter Finals will be a minimum.


Road To The Finals

England have had a pretty much straight forward road to the finals. They were put in a group that involved rivals Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta. During the qualifiers England picked up 26 points out of 30, winning 8, drawing 2 and losing none of their matches. They started the campaign with an away win at Slovakia with a Lallana’s last minute winner, however their manager Sam Allardyce got caught in an English football scandal which forced him to leave the job after one game, however Gareth Southgate would take over the job for the rest of the qualifiers and would get England through. England didn’t show anything exciting during the qualifiers, they had a lot of tough games where they had to grind a result out, their only easy wins were against Malta, Lithuania and Scotland at home. They even had a very tough games when they had to play Lithuania away. Slovakia and Slovenia definitely tested England by making them come back from a deficit which England did. What I’ve learnt from the qualifiers is that we shouldn’t expect England to destroy opposition but it showed me that their mental toughness could be a huge problem for opposition teams as they’ve shown that they can comeback from deficits. England’s top scorer was their captain Harry Kane with 5 goals followed by Lallana and Sturridge (not selected for the tournament) with 2 and then players like Alli Vardy Welbeck Rashford etc have scored 1 each.

The History of England’s National Team

England have had a storied history in football with a lot of memorable world cup and European championships moments. England as a county have hosted a world cup and euros before and have done really well in both. England are one time world cup winners and have made a couple semi finals too in their history, however many fans have waited for so long as their country haven’t won a tournament in which now is 52 years, no wonder they call it the “50 years of hurt”. England have had a lot of heart breaking moments during these competitions such as Maradona’s hand ball, Losing the semi finals on penalties in 1990, then losing a semi final in 1996 euros to Germany again on penalties at home. During their history England have made 15 world cups including this year and in the previous 14 they were winners once (1966), they reached the semi final in 1990, they were knocked out in the quarters 6 times in 1954 1962 1970 1986 2002 and 2006, lost in the second stage of group stages when the format was different in 1982, lost in round of 16 in 1998 and 2010 and got knocked out of the group stages 3 times in 1950, 1958 and most recently in 2014. It’s a storied history full of ups and downs and England will be looking to right another chapter in their book, will it be a good or a bad one we don’t know but all we do know is that they’ll be hoping to make their country as proud as possible.

Key Players

Harry Kane: Harry Kane has to be the most important player for England during this world cup. After a disappointing euros in 2016, he will be willing to improve and hopefully he has learnt from that experience. Harry Kane is not a much better player who is still managing to reach career highs in goals. After scoring another 30 in the league this year, England will be hoping that Kane can bring the same type of goal scoring at the world cup. Furthermore Harry Kane is the captain and he will have to show his leadership qualities so other players buy into what he’s doing. By being the main man up front and the captain, Harry Kane will surely be put under a lot of pressure and it’s important that he stays mentally strong to deal with it, but for the players that he is, surely pressure isn’t going to affect him right? We’ll have to wait and see. This will be the biggest tournament of a young career of Harry Kane

Dele Alli: The 22 year old Dele Alli will be a massive key for England. He will the guy that England will be expecting to open up defences with his creativity and goal scoring. Dele Alli had a decent season, maybe slightly worse than what he did in the year prior but he definitely showed flashes of brilliance in a league season where he finished with 9 goals and 10 assists. Dele Alli will get to play with his partner in crime Harry Kane and many England supporters will be expecting him to deliver for the country the way he does for Tottenham. This is also Dele’s second big competition and his first world cup which means that this is also his biggest tournament of his young career so far. Dele Alli will be playing high up the pitch and he’s going to have to create for wingers and the strikers to score. The weights are on his shoulders, but hey, that’s what top class players have to deal with, immense pressure and the question is will Dele take on the challenge and beat the pressure? We’ll see.




Raheem Sterling: Raheem has finally had a breakthrough year this season and England will be expecting him to continue his great form that he had for Man City scoring 18 goals and getting 11 assists in the Premier League. Raheem will provide pace, creativity and goal scoring for England, which is pretty much all you need in a winger. After a season like that, Raheem is definitely one of England’s best players coming into this world cup and after having a shocker in the Euros a couple years ago, Raheem will be eager to redeem himself at the World Cup. Of course now England aren’t Man City and goals will be harder to come by, but having that type of experience in winning the league, scoring and getting assists at will should give Raheem a tons of confidence and a talent like him will definitely be needed by England to advance far in the world cup.


Possibilities, Predictions and Expectations:


As mentioned already, England will be looking to right the wrongs of their recent world cups and will be hoping to get further than round of 16. England will be in a group with Belgium Tunisia and Panama which seems straight forward, but nevertheless the game with Iceland in 2016 seemed like it would be straight forward and we all know how that went. England have to stay professional when they face the lower sides in Tunisia and Panama and will have to get the job done. The Belgium game will be extremely tough as Belgium are one of the best teams in the world. The task to get out of the groups for England won’t be as easy, but they are expected to breeze through and I believe they have learnt from the past and will take the lesser teams more seriously and by doing that they should be able to get by them and advance to the next round. It really should depend on their game with Belgium whether they get 1st or 2nd.


Assuming England advance past the group stages, they’d have to face a team from group H which would either be Colombia, Senegal, Poland or Japan. That definitely doesn’t sound an easy R16 matchup regardless of who they face especially Colombia who are one of the dark horses of the tournament in my eyes. England would definitely be at risk of losing to any of these teams, but at the same time you’d favour England to beat these teams, well maybe except Colombia who are just as good if not better than England, it really is just speculation and we don’t know who will show up for the World Cup, for all we know the highly rated Colombians may not even make it out the group stages and England may face someone like Japan. But realistically it shouldn’t really matter who they face, I think England can get by Round of 16.


If England got by Round of 16, that’s when it would all get serious. They would realistically have to face one of the top power houses throughout the rest of the world cup such as Brazil, Germany, Spain, France or someone else on that calibre. If England got there and had to face one of these teams, then they’d be easily labelled as underdogs and I’m not sure whether they can get by one of these teams which is where I think quarter finals is their most realistic target. Now of course anything can happen in one game, a sending off, an injury or maybe just get a luck of results where they end up not having to face any of these giants in the Quarters, but there just so much that has to happen in that case. In the end I think England will either get knocked out In ROUND OF 16 or the Quarter Final, it’d be really hard for them to get by the likes of Germany so I don’t think they have much of a chance to get to the Semis or the Final, but they’re definitely good enough to make it to the Final 8. If you’re a betting man then you can get great odds on England getting eliminated in R16 at 3.00 or the quarters at 3.20 at WiliamHill because these are their most realistic elimination points.


England’s Full Squad:


Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jack Butland (Stoke), Nick Pope (Burnley)


Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Man City), Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose (both Tottenham), Harry Maguire (Leicester), Phil Jones (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Gary Cahill (Chelsea)


Midfielders: Jordan Henderson, (Liverpool), Eric Dier, Dele Alli (both Tottenham), Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young (both Man Utd), Fabian Delph (Man City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea)


Forwards: Raheem Sterling (Man City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal)


 


England’s World Cup Schedule (UK TIME)

18/06/2018 – Tunisia-England 7pm


24/06/2018 – England-Panama 1pm


28/06/2018 – England-Belgium 7 pm


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