Wednesday, June 30, 2010

England lost at World Cup simply because England's BEST Midfield Passer wasn't in the squad!

So much is being made of England's poor passing ability in midfield after the sorry exit from the World Cup that News of the World decided to look at which English players had the best stats in this area last season.


According to Opta's analysis, Paul Scholes and Jermaine Jenas came out on top.


From the table shown below, we can guess why Fabio Capello tried to persuade Scholes to end his international exile while Jenas was overlooked for the 30-man provisional squad despite being previously involved under the Italian coach.


Only Chelsea's John Obi Mikel is higher in our table after posting an 89.76% success rate.
Michael Essien was next in the rankings, ahead of Arsenal trio Emmanuel Eboue, Denilson and Samir Nasri.

Looking further down the list, Spaniard Mikel Arteta could qualify for England due to the residency laws and he's ahead of other candidates for the Three Lions.


Michael Carrick and Aaron Lennon, two players who did make the 23-man squad, are sandwiched between Fulham's Jonathan Greening while Jimmy Bullard, who was much maligned by Hull fans, still managed to record an impressive pass completion rate.


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