English football audiences may like to think that they have an insight into the players likely to feature at this summer's World Cup, with 16% of all the players in the tournament playing in England. Only Italy, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Russia have no players currently playing in England, although the first three all have players with plenty of English league experience (Russia are unique at the World Cup in having all their players play in their home league). Because we see them deliver brilliant game changing performances throughout a highly competitive season, we have a sense that Luis Suarez, Eden Hazard and Sergio Aguero will star in Brazil. But will they? Might the match winning moments equally come from someone else entirely? As anybody who remembers the brief and wholly disappointing post-USA '94 English league careers of Florin Raducioiu or Tomas Brolin can attest to, performance in the high pressure, short term results environment of a World Cup is not an indicator of the ability to deliver consistently in the weekly grind of league football. During the regular season Wayne Rooney is indisputably chosen above Javier Hernandez for Manchester United, but at the last World Cup Chicharito scored half of the Mexicans' goals while Rooney did not find the net once for England. A player of Hernandez's quality may only be a fringe player at a world class club, but his national team can build around his strengths. So, while England struggle to know what to do to get the best from Rooney, Hernandez thrives for Mexico. Chicharito has, nevertheless, generally been a success at United. The following ten players, however, flopped during their time in the Premier League, but could yet surprise English fans with their performances in Brazil.
