England's left back dilema
There are 3 left backs in contention to go to Brazil Ashley Cole, Luke Shaw and Leighton Baines and it will be difficult for Hodgson to pick two so I am going to anaylze each contender and give my opinion on which one of these players should go to Brazil:
Ashley Cole: He has only made 20 appearances out of a possible 42 which is quite poor to be honest if you want to play reguarly for your nation you should be starting 90% of your clubs games when fully fit. He is 33 so he will provide some experience but his lack of game time this season might cost him. He can attack and defend very well and I still think Ashley Cole has been one of the best left backs in the world but I think his time is up and he will retire in the next couple seasons.
Final Verdict: I don't think Roy Hodgson should pick him to go to Brazil mainly because he is getting on a bit in terms of age and has featured in about 50% of Chelsea's games this season.
Luke Shaw: He is a brillant young talent and has been linked with moves to Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea this season and that doesn't happen to an average footballer at the age of 18. He has appeared in 26 of Southampton's league games and 4 FA cup matches which is the majority of their season so far. The minimum requrirment for an English player is play 50 Premier league games and he has played 48 of Southamptons league games over their two season on going Premier League campaign and he will hit the 50 match mark. He is not the most experienced player but he has got a lot of quality and can defend extremly well. Although he is only 18 and it might affect his confidence if he performs badly and he also doesn't have much international experience which only 1 game under his belt for England.
Final Verdict: I think he should 100% go to Brazil it will help him so much to peform on the international stage at the age of 18. Theo Walcott was only 17 went he went to the World Cup in 2006 so there is no reason why a player of Luke Shaw's quality shouldn't be selected to go to the World Cup.
Leighton Baines: The 29 year old is a quality player and this without a doubt his last chance to play at a World Cup for England. I think he he will bring a lot to the team he defend well, attack well and he is also a very good free kick taker and a good penalty taker and penaltys are very important for England as it has been one of their weaknesses over the years. He has played 27 games for Everton this season 22 in the Premier League and 5 in the FA Cup and he has been a regular in their start X1 since he joined 2007 and is one of their best players at the moment.
Final Verdict: I think he should go to Brazil and be their starting left back in the team he has so much to offer and he throughly deserves it after the sucess he has had with Everton. It would be incredibly harsh on him if he is not selected.
Should Wenger get compensation for Wilshere's injury?
Jack Wilshere was injured in a friendly between England and Denmark, he is out for 6 weeks after breaking his leg following a collision with Daniel Agger. Wenger wants 600,000 pounds for the injury but Jack Wilshere said he felt he could carry on and was later subbed off for Adam Lallana on the 59th minute. Personally I don't think that Wenger should get the compensation because if he does get the money what is that going to do it's not going to get him fully fit any earlier or be able to purchase a new central midfielder because the transfer window isn't open. Also Wilshere chose to play on because he felt fine, he has a dedication to his club and country. They are going to overlap for example he played 81 minutes against Stoke 4 days earlier and with the quality that Wilshere has Wenger should possibly limit his game time but then that will decrease Arsenal's performance in the League and other competitions, so its a very difficult situation. I don't think a manager should rest a player for their club game just for the sake of letting them start in an international game because then the manager is making his job harder to make the international team managers job easier. So it's a very difficult situation and it goes the same in Walcott's situation because he was injured in an Arsenal game and now England have to suffer for it but so do Arsenal. Players are going to get injured and some players are more injury prone than others you can't really do much to prevent other than limit their game time and hope that the oppositions players won't mistime a tackle which makes a managers job almost impossible. But I still think that Wenger shouldn't get the money.
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