It’s international week and our focus is back on Euro 2016 qualification as UEFA’s federations all compete to get reach the tournament in France next year!

In recent weeks new Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood has made a bold prediction when discussing England’s chances of competing at next years European Championships.

He stated…

“Roy will stumble across a team that will win the Euros. He will, I tell you. They will win it.”

Now that sums up Sherwood, he brims with confidence and is always there for a positive soundbite. But he also goes a bit too far.

For the life of me I just can’t see England doing it next year. Given a bit of luck I don’t see why they couldn’t get to the semi-final stage but alternatively given some bad luck they could fall at the group stages.

Look at last summers World Cup. England finished bottom of their group and only managed a single point in a dull nil-nil encounter with Costa Rica.

Has enough changed since that tournament to suggest they are now able to compete with the likes of Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Dutch?

England will have a decent squad, they always do. But do they have any players of top pedigree?

Joe Hart on his day perhaps. Wayne Rooney is still waiting for that ultimate international tournament. Arsenal players like Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain have a poor record of injuries.

I’ve still to be convinced that Roy Hodgson is capable of managing a squad to international glory.

Not enough of England’s best teams play a good share of homegrown players, Chelsea and Manchester City in particular. That suggests that they probably aren’t good enough for the really important games.

This season has seen English sides again under perform in Europe.

But for me, there is a reason above all that that will see England come unstuck in any big tournament like the Euros and that’s because they lack a world-class centre half.

The Chris Smalling and Phil Jones partnership was meant to have taken off by now, yet it hasn’t. Yes they have had a few decent outings for Manchester United in the last couple of weeks but even against Liverpool they were vulnerable at times.

Gary Cahill is better when he’s partnered beside John Terry at Chelsea. He doesn’t have that luxury at international level and I doubt Terry will come out of international retirement to play for the ‘Three Lions’ again.

Phil Jagielka is a decent pro but he isn’t great and seems to be found wanting during important fixtures for club or country. His Everton colleague John Stones is still learning his trade, he’d need a full season at centre-back to be ready for a huge tournament like the Euros.

I doubt anyone in the Under-21s will come into the reckoning in time for June 2016.

Germany at the World Cup last year had Mats Hummels who was one of the players of the tournament.

In Euro 2012, current champions Spain only conceded one goal in the whole tournament. Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique were paramount in that success even if everyone was fawning over Andres Iniesta.

England are still soft in the central defence area and they struggle to keep out the best strikers. That will be their greatest downfall when they try and challenge for the ‘Henri Delaunay Trophy’ next summer.

Posted on March 24th, 2015 by scott
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