Of course I’d take Joe Cole – I’d put him in the starting 11 – but I don’t think Capello likes him. Bonkers. Anyhow:
GK: James, Hart, Green
DF: Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Johnson, Carragher, King, Baines, Dawson
MF: Lampard, Gerrard, Barry (/Huddlestone), Parker, Lennon, Cole, Milner, Walcott
ST: Rooney, Crouch, Defoe, Bent
And I’d play as a starting 11: Green/Johnson, Terry, Ferdinand, Cole/ Barry, Lampard/ Lennon, Gerrard, Cole/ Rooney (ie both Rooney and Gerrard in the roles that they play for their clubs).
If Capello sticks with Rooney as a support striker, England to exit at the QF. If he lets Gerrard and Rooney play in their best positions, with fast wingers, then we might make the final… (but we’d lose to either Brazil or Spain).
Looking at your squad (which I don’t disagree with, apart from a slight preference for Heskey over Bent), it brings home rather depressingly what little genuine talent has merged since Rooney burst on the scene. Especially upfront, where Defoe and Bent don’t seem to have progressed much over the last few years.