Keeping our Identity

 

Brazilians 2 (when Paulinho joins 3)

French 2

Belgian 2

American 2

Cameroon 1

Icelandic 1

German 1

Tongelese 1

Spain 1

British 11

 

From the above squad (including Paulinho) you would expect the following starting 11;

 

Lloris

Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Assou-Ekotto

Sandro 

Paulinho Dembele 

Lennon Bale

Defoe

 

 

From this first starting 11 we have 4 British players in the side, but we shall be signing at least 1 more striker so expect to see another British person drop from the starting 11 and be replace with a foreign player. In terms of making our squad better you would have to say that this is not a bad thing, but in terms of our British identity we are starting to lose it. It is for this reason that our league is becoming great, but our national side is suffering so much.

So I ask you a question, is it important that we maintain the british contingent in our team? 

 

For me (as the FA have failed to make the necessary changes to take the national team forward) it's club before country. Don't get me wrong I would love for the national team to be great again, but they cannot do this with the poor archaic system that we currently have in place. Making the leap of faith that Spain did shows how far behind we truly are as a national team. However I digress, as a club it is important to maintain an English contingent in the side so maybe it is worth looking at Tom Ince to play on the left and keep Bale in the middle behind the striker (but this potentially means dropping Dembele). 

 

It is interesting when you look at the overall squad to see that we have 11 British players, but what is ridiculous is that 6 of them are in midfield, we have 4 in defence (it is almost an English International back 4 at that too), but we only have 1 British striker (who will be dropping to the bench with the impending arrival of a new non British striker). Next season as things are shaping up it is likely that we will have 2-3 British players in the starting lineup, which is a little sad, but as I have said it's club before country (or at least it is until the FA start to commit to the wholesale changes that are so desperately needed).