To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Sky's Attempts To Predict England's World Cup Squad From 2015 Are Decent

Sky's Attempts To Predict England's World Cup Squad From 2015 Are Decent

Gareth Southgate has some tough decisions to make before England travel to the World Cup in Russia this summer.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Who would make your England team for the World Cup and can you predict an England team for three years time? Sky tried in 2015 to work out who would make England's team for Russia and it's not too bad.

Where are we in the England World Cup cycle? It's a while away yet so we definitely haven't reached 'we can go all the way' levels yet but we're definitely above the 'we're doomed to lose to Iceland again' levels too.

Every competition England enter we get to the point where we repeat the same mistakes we've already made and inevitably the players will too.

In 2015 we tried to predict our team for the Euros in 2020:

This year's World Cup might still be several months away but once January is finished we all know that time flies and Gareth Southgate had some big calls to make for his squad before then.

Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane have been two of the Premier League's in form players this season but a lot of other players may not have the best form so it's tricky to guess the bosses first choice XI.

In 2015 Sky Sports gave it a go and considering that's two England managers and three years ago they had a decent go:

How's that for a World Cup team? Image: Sky Sports
How's that for a World Cup team? Image: Sky Sports

Since they named that side of course England went into the Euros in France, got knocked out by Iceland, sacked Roy Hodgson, appointed Sam Allardyce, sacked Allardyce, appointed Gareth Southgate and qualified for Russia in the summer.

So you can't exactly blame Sky for missing the fact that the Three Lions are likely to play three at the back when they face Panama, Tunisia and Belgium in the Group Stages.

John Stones and Phil Jones started November's friendlies and look likely to go, Nathaniel Clyne and Joe Hart may not be first choices but should still be there.

Jordan Henderson could make up part of a three man midfield, Jack Wilshere could also make the plane if not the first XI. Ross Barkley, with Luke Shaw, are probably the biggest question marks to making the trip.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain probably won't start but his versatility and fact he usually ends up in every England squad make him a likely member of the 23.

Sterling and Kane should be two of the first names on the team-sheet with the City forward playing out of position through the middle in the probably 3-5-2.

Who makes your team?

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Russia 2018, England, Sky Sports, Gareth Southgate, World Cup