If all fit, healthy and ready my 11 would be:
-----------------James----------------
GJohnson----Rio-----Terry-----ACole
--------------Hargreaves--------------
Lennon---Lampard---Gerrard---JCole
----------------Rooney----------------
Rooney plays his best football when he is a lone striker, the emphasis is all on him and he thrives on that. 5 in midfield is a must at this level as most teams line up with a 451/433 formation and getting overrun in midfield (like England did in the first half yesterday, and City did against United at home) will lose you the game. Gerrard can then play in the middle, and with Lampard but niether has to do the midfield anchor role as they have had to in the past when both in the centre as with one upfront Hargreaves can play behind them!
However, this team is not fit, healthy and ready! James has been in and out of Pomoeys team all season with injury; as have all the back 4; Hargreaves was Englands best player in Germany in 2006 buy has played 100seconds of football in 20months; Gerrard has been playing 70% fit all season; Lampard is never the player he is at Chelsea for England; JCole who was Enlgands other top performer in Germ'06 has been injured for a year; Lennon is inexperienced at this level; and Rooney has been injury hit on-and-off for 2 years! And the bad (and desperately sad) thing is that the replacements for these players are way way off the quality needed for World Cup football and are players who are also injured, coming back from injury or inexperienced!
12months ago I genuinly felt we were going to win the world cup, now I feel we'll do well to get to the quarter finals!
