England’s World Cup 2018 squad doesn’t include Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere and if you’re asking former Manchester United great and current BT pundit Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Southgate made the right decision by not taking Wilshere to Russia.
When Gareth Southgate announced his 23-man squad for Russia, there was one name missing – Jack Wilshere. The Arsenal midfielder wasn’t a certainty to make the squad, but the majority agreed that he belonged there, especially considering how thin England’s midfield is. However, Southgate opted for a younger and physically fitter Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
“I didn’t disagree with the midfield choices that he took. I just think that he can count on all the others physically.”
Wilshere has struggled with injuries since forever. Upon making his Champions League debut for The Gunners as a 17-year-old, he picked up an ankle injury that forced him to spend one month on the sidelines. During the pre-season in 2011, he suffered a serious ankle break that threatened to end his career. He missed the entire 2011/12 season, including Euro 2012. He managed to recover from that heartbreaking injury and made his return a year later. Another ankle injury in 2013 put him in the doctor’s office for another month and eventually in the surgery room (again). At the start of the 2014/15 season, he was victim of a hard challenge by Manchester United’s Paddy McNair in a league game and was sidelined for another four months. During the 2015 pre-season, he broke his fibula, missing a full season of football. Then, while on loan at Bournemouth in 2016, he cracked his left fibula. Staggering, right?
The resilience he has shown over the years is worthy of a medal of honor. As admirable as his comeback has been, Wilshere is just too much of a risk. Ferdinand agrees:
“Going into a tournament, I’ve been there when we’ve had teams when there’s a player that’s a little bit unfit and it does leave uncertainty in the squad. It does affect the squad.”
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
In addition, his role for England is undetermined. Is he an attacking or a holding midfielder? Wilshere is not a World Cup level attacking midfielder. Furthermore, the formation that Gareth Southgate used doesn’t include a typical attacking midfielder anyway. Players like Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Dele Alli have far more value in the tactics he deploys. Once again, Rio agrees:
” I think the others, if you’re going to play him in an attacking midfield role, he doesn’t add up to someone like Dele (Alli), he doesn’t add up to someone like Jesse (Lingard), in terms of getting goals, or making things happen in the final third, assists – his stats can’t live with them type of guys.””
The other option is holding midfielder but the Arsenal man doesn’t have much experience in this role. He’s too fragile for it anyway. Eric Dier and Jonathan Henderson are already established members of the starting lineup and better than Wilshere in that role. Loftus-Cheek provides the perfect back-up. He’s an enthusiastic youngster with low expectations who will appreciate every World Cup second he spends on the pitch. Wilshere, however, is finally healthy. Therefore, he would expect to play while he can. He could effect the locker room spirit in a negative way as a bench player.
“So the argument for him to go is less when you’re looking at those kind of arguments against him.” – Rio Ferdinand.
