When the announcement was made this morning, it was hard not to feel sorry for Mark Noble in particular. Jack Wilshere and Jordan Henderson had been gifted call ups despite barely playing, Fabian Delph has infuriated most of the nation with his miraculous inclusion and even though it was inevitable, a place in the initial 26 man squad would have been at least some kind of justice for the season that our midfielder has had.
Andy Carroll has been in form recently and has shown what he can offer the squad as a plan B. Roy Hodgson decided that Rashford, who has obviously been in form himself, was the player that would be given an opportunity to stake his claim to become part of the 23 man squad. Despite Hodgson claiming that Rashford’s time in an England shirt would come, and that he wasn’t strictly part of his plan, he called him up anyway.
It wasn’t a surprise to see no West Ham inclusions.
Form clearly doesn’t matter to Roy, he has his favourites. But the inclusion of Rashford made me wonder why if he was to pick a wildcard based on form, how did he manage to look past Michail Antonio?
Antonio is a fans favourite, and it would be justified to claim that he has been one of the best wingers in the league when he has played there. The wingers called up include Townsend; who has been decent recently. Lallana; who has had an above average season and Sterling; who has been abysmal recently. Navas starts every week above Sterling so that tells us everything we need to know.
Stats wise, Antonio has surpassed all of them, despite not fully featuring for West Ham until November time. He is more of a goal threat that all 3, with 8 Premier League goals and would have significantly more if he wasn’t played at Right Back for about 5/6 matches of the season. Goals with both feet, a decent crosser of the ball and he is an aerial threat. Pace, power, goals, assists and commitment. Antonio has all of them in abundance, but has been neglected throughout the season by the majority of the media.
It pains me to admit that these things have an influence on Roy Hodgson’s squad, but had this been a Tottenham winger or a Liverpool winger who had scored and assisted more than all of the other wingers in the squad, there would mass outrage that they weren’t included.
He also works harder than most Premier League players. He is a player that would fit into any squad, because he works so hard on and off the ball that you can only praise him.
Antonio’s time will come, but when a player is in red hot form, having scored two in his last two and is one of the leading wingers in the Premier League, his non inclusion is absolute preposterous.
Noble was hard to take, Carroll was also unfortunate, but Antonio can feel equally hard done by.
