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Unknown Soldier · 05-25-2012, 03:40 AM

The lack of a thread for this on here doesn't surprise me given the lack of national enthusiasm for England's chances. In fact I can never remember a time when English football fans were so downcast over England's chances. I've been actively following football since the 1980s and this is the first tournament that I can say, where the media hasn't overestimated our chances, even when England had poor teams in the past, there was still the media hype surrounding them. For the first time, maybe the media will actually be more realistic about the team.

So what can we expect from Roy Hodgson's team, first off I'd say he's actually a good choice, but how can he get the best out of his very mediocre team? There has been the usual rumblings over squad selection, but lets look at who has been left out, the likes of injury prone Ferdinand, gangly Crouch and Adam Johnson just one of the many average wingers that we have. I mean are these players and others left out any better than the 23 selected?

A breakdown of the team will reveal that Hart is probably the best keeper that England have had in many a year, but the back four in front of him? Can Cahill and Terry hit it off? Lampard and Gerrard playing together and how imprtant will Parker be with his injury scare? Up front Rooney is the teams best player but he's missing the first two matches.

The one plus point for England is that they can qualify from their group, the France match is vital, as France player for player are the best team in the group, the Sweden match is dstined to be a draw as it usually is and Ukraine will be an unknown quantity. If England beat either France or Ukraine and draw with Sweden they will qualify on 4 points, but I'd say the quarters is the best they can hope for.