Since its original incarnation, England squads have never pleased everybody. There are always points of dubious contention and even more so now amid an era in which the Three Lions are devoid of truly top talents barring a small rabble, leaving Gareth Southgate to make judgement calls on players of very similar, largely unspectacular ability.
With that in mind, we asked fans from a variety of England’s biggest clubs to vote for their ideal Three Lions squad for the upcoming qualifiers with Malta and Slovenia in FootballFanCast’s exclusive poll, from our list of 53 candidates.
Using the same position quota as Southgate, excepting swapping the fourth goalkeeper for an extra midfielder, here’s a look at the six players who made the official England squad, but not the squad chosen by our readers.
GK: Joe Hart
He’s England’s No.1 and widely expected to start against Malta this evening but England fans clearly aren’t convinced by Joe Hart, whose career has endured a drastic downward turn in recent years. Two huge errors at Euro 2016 were followed by exile from Manchester City, leading to a season-long loan at Torino and a subsequent spell with West Ham this term. He’s already conceded ten times for the Hammers and now faces immense competition for his role in the Three Lions squad with the likes of Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford and Tom Heaton firmly on the rise. Our readers even chose Fraser Forster ahead of the 71-cap shot-stopper.
LB: Aaron Cresswell
One of Southgate’s more surprising inclusions considering how poorly West Ham have started the season. Aaron Cresswell’s seriously struggled for form since the start of last season amid a host of injury problems but in that time has bizarrely picked up his first two England caps. Our readers seemingly look on the 27-year-old much less favourably; they preferred Leighton Baines as one of Southgate’s options on the left of defence.
CB: Chris Smalling
A rare exception to our rule of at least one league appearance this season, simply because he was already selected in Southgate’s squad. Our readers seem to view the faith placed in Chris Smalling as unjustified; although he’s relatively experienced at international level with 31 caps, he’s made just 18 Premier League appearances since the start of last season and appears to be some way down the pecking order at Old Trafford when everybody’s fit. Jack Stephens ranked ahead of the 6 foot 4 centre-back in our poll.
CM: Jake Livermore
One of the more uninspiring members of Southgate’s recent squads, Jake Livermore clearly hasn’t won over the neutrals in the England gaffer’s bid to find a dependable option alongside Jordan Henderson in central midfield. The 27-year-old can be a useful asset in certain scenarios and appears to be a favourite of Southgate’s, but he’s certainly not the most exciting of midfielders and our readers preferred the idea of bringing youngster James Ward-Prowse into the engine room.
CM: Nathaniel Chalobah
Another experimental option for the holding role, it’s taken just three solid Premier League appearances for Nathaniel Chalobah to earn his first call-up to the senior squad. In fairness, the former Chelsea midfielder has made almost 100 appearances for England across the youth levels and was always a favourite of Southgate’s during his time as U21 manager. Our readers don’t think the 22-year-old is ready just yet, however.
AM: Jesse Lingard
A player managers seem to love but fans seem to detest. There’s clearly a lot more to Jesse Lingard than just being an unspectacular bit-part attacking midfielder for Manchester United; Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Southgate have all found room for the 24-year-old in their plans over the last few years. Lingard is certainly hard working and also has a knack for very occasionally producing the sublime, but our readers went for Michail Antonio and Nathan Redmond over the England international.
Results in full