4. Team Selection
The first major surprise in Roy Hodgson's team selection was the omission of former captain Rio Ferdinand. Hodgson insisted that leaving him out was based purely on "footballing reasons" though many suspect his hand was forced due to the FA's concern over having him and John Terry in the same dressing room ahead of a court case involving the Chelsea defender and Rio's brother Anton, who alleges the Chelsea defender racially abused him. When Gary Cahill was forced out of the 23 man squad with a fractured jaw during the friendly with Belgium, many thought Ferdinand would at last be called up to the squad. Instead, Liverpool defender Martin Kelly was given the nod, despite him having only ever made one appearance for England. Now is that a logical, "footballing reason?" Absolutely not. It was a ridiculous decision, especially as England badly needed the experience and composure Ferdinand would have provided England during the barrage of pressure inflicted upon them by Italy. Jordan Henderson's inclusion in the squad was also a strange one given he only had 2 England caps. After the injury to Frank Lampard, there were much better candidates to chose from, such as Manchester United's Michael Carrick. Stewart Downing's inclusion also raised a few eyebrows given he failed to score or create an assist all season for Liverpool. Finally, the inclusion of Jermain Defoe was a mistake. He was virtually anonymous throughout the tournament, and had previously never played an entire 90 minutes in all 48 of his England appearances, only featuring as a substitute in that time. Instead, Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge should have been selected - he had a much better season than Defoe, and whilst the latter was kept out of the Tottenham team due to the red hot form of Adebayor, Sturridge was keeping Torres out of the starting XI at Stamford Bridge. Click "next" below to read the next entry...