What if the England squad was determined by Dream Team points?
LAST week, Gareth Southgate named his 25-man squad for England’s imminent friendlies against Switzerland and Ivory Coast.
As is customary, a legion of supporters responded with comments along the lines of “no player x? clueless!” with player x being somebody who represents the club the indignant fan supports 99.99% of the time.
Since it’s the international break, we wondered what would the Three Lions squad look like if it was determined by Dream Team points?
Obviously this wouldn’t be a practical endeavour in reality for a number of different reasons but come on, it’s the international break, let us have our fun.
Before we reveal the list, some admin: we’ve discounted players who are retired from international duty (Jamie Vardy) but have included players currently injured since this exercise is really about identifying the best England eligible players of 2021/22.
Without further ado, a 25-man England squad as determined by this season’s Dream Team points…
GOALKEEPERS
- Aaron Ramsdale (£3.5m)
- Nick Pope (£2.6m)
- Alex McCarthy (£2.3m)
The first bombshell is that Southgate’s No1 doesn’t make the cut!
Jordan Pickford (£1.5m) has mustered just 16 points but, in fairness, a keeper is only as good as the defence in front of him in Dream Team – and Everton have massively underperformed this season.
Arsenal’s new fan favourite is the clear candidate to start between the sticks when fit using this metric as he’s one of just five players in position to have achieved 100+ points at this stage.
DEFENDERS
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m)
- Reece James (£6.0m)
- Trevor Chalobah (£3.9m)
- Max Kilman (£3.5m)
- Ben White (£3.9m)
- Aaron Cresswell (£4.0m)
- John Stones (£5.7m)
- Craig Dawson (£3.1m)
- Conor Coady (£4.1m)
Over half of the players here would have made Southgate’s actual squad were it not for injury pullouts.
There are plenty of Chelsea and Wolves fans who believe Chalobah and Kilman deserve places in the squad over the likes of Tyrone Mings (£3.2m) and Harry Maguire (£3.1m) and that thinking is reinforced here.
Manchester United’s skipper is a regular starter for the Three Lions but he’s scraped just 47 points this season whereas Chalobah and Kilman are both centurions.
It’s interesting to note that only one left-back makes the cut, 32-year-old Cresswell, who is joined by club team-mate Dawson – somewhere David Moyes is smiling at the thought.
Ben Chilwell (£5.0m) would have been among the top three English defenders in terms of points had he not had his season prematurely ended by injury – the Chelsea left-back averages 5.8 points-per-game this season.
MIDFIELDERS
- Jarrod Bowen (£4.6m)
- Raheem Sterling (£4.7m)
- James Maddison (£3.9m)
- Mason Mount (£4.7m)
- Phil Foden (£5.6m)
- Bukayo Saka (£4.2m)
- James Ward-Prowse (£4.5m)
- Conor Gallagher (£2.8m)
- Harvey Barnes (£4.2m)
- Emile Smith Rowe (£3.7m)
Dream Team favours attack-minded midfielders so there’s no room for Declan Rice (£2.5m), one of the first names on the team sheet in reality.
Bowen would surely have made Southgate’s squad had he not suffered an ill-timed injury – he’s scored 12 goals and provided nine assists in all competitions.
The only other names here that weren’t called up in real life are Leicester pair Barnes and Maddison.
The latter has every right to feel aggrieved as he’s been as good as anyone in his position in terms of pure attacking output in recent months.
The Foxes’ No10 has scored 13 goals and provided seven assists in all competitions – what more does he have to do?
It’s notable that Jack Grealish (£4.2m) hasn’t made the cut, his points total of 76 is rather underwhelming for an asset of his reputation.
FORWARDS
- Harry Kane (£7.3m)
- Ivan Toney (£4.6m)
- Ollie Watkins (£3.4m)
Dream Team makes it abundantly clear that Toney should be first in line behind Kane in the England strikers pecking order – and Brentford fans would probably agree.
The Bees’ No17 has scored 11 league goals this season, only six Premier League players have more at this stage and from them only one is English, the Three Lions’ captain.
Mohamed Salah (£7.9m) and Alexander-Arnold are the only players with more points than Kane (234) right now.
Overall, 13 players appear in our hypothetical squad and Southgate’s actual 25, although four individuals (Ramsdale, Alexander-Arnold, James, Bowen) would almost certainly have been included were it not for injury.
The conclusion? Justice for Maddison and Toney!