Euros 2012 - England's Hopes

4^th June:

Called-up: Martin Kelly and Jordan Henderson

It’s fair to say that the much under-rated England squad is becoming much more belittled as they seem to be losing numbers by the day. Following the tournament defining injuries to John Ruddy, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and now Gary Cahill. England already have a list of players with niggly injuries, such as Scott Parker, John Terry, Glen Johnson and Danny Welbeck. But as seen in their last friendly against Belgium all of them featured but John Terry pulled up with a hamstring and Scott Parker seems to be continually getting injections for his Achilles. Roy Hodgeson is also unable to call up Michael Carrick, as he is reluctant to join the squad after being overlooked for the original team and not to forget Wayne Rooney suspended for the first two games.

All of these problems arose after me named his original squad for the Euros. But the pool that Hodgeson had to pick from was already minute as the players such as Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverly and Darren Bent would have had a very good chance of making the squad. The players Roy has had to call-up to cover injuries have been players such as Phil Jakialka, Jordan Henderson and now Martin Kelly.

Funnily enough in the squad of 23 there seems to be 6 Liverpool players. From my point of view, I'm glad to see a high number of Liverpool players in the England team, I have never seen so much Liverpool players in the team. But even I have to wonder what Roy was thinking in picking the likes of players such as Downing and Henderson, both of whom have not had the best of seasons, especially Downing amazingly enough a winger with no league goals or assists to his name for the whole season. I've always had faith in Henderson even if he hasn't produced this season but showed glimpses of his great potential. I'm hoping he will gain a lot from being in the England squad and learn from Gerrard a lot more now and not be so scared from showing his stuff on the pitch. Martin Kelly unlike Henderson has always showed he is capable of performing whenever he has had a chance to impress in the absences of Glen Johnson or any of the other Liverpool defenders. With these two young players along with Andy Carroll, Liverpool’s future looks very promising now after a frustrating season.

But again looking at the England squad, even after the two narrow friendly victories over lesser sides like Norway and Belgium, surely expectations have not grown but instead declined to new low. So this injury-plagued England side should be playing without too much pressure more the first time in a major tournament. All this should all work in Roy Hodgeson’s favour to help England to achieve heights that they haven’t reached since the solitary world cup win.