Capello Names 23 for Friendly vs Czech Republic

August 16th, 2008 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Here’s Fabio Capello’s 23 man squad for the game against Czech Republic on Wednesday:

Goalkeepers: David James (Portsmouth), Paul Robinson (Blackburn Rovers), Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham United), Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), David Bentley (Tottenham Hotspur), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough)

Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Emile Heskey (Wigan Athletic)

What can we read into this?

Either there are two Theo Walcotts, or the young Arsenal winger/forward has been promoted from the under-21s.

No Ashley Young? Why Fabio why? For all the talk about England needing pace, here we have another squad with very little pace in midfield.

Paul Robinson has been forgiven and recalled.

Capello likes the looks of Emile Heskey, even though the Wigan man was outscored and outperformed by West Ham’s Dean Ashton today.

Capello doesn’t like the looks of Peter Crouch. The big man’s been ditched.

No recall for Gary Neville, which is fair enough as he’s yet to play a properly competitive game for Man Utd (no, Community Shield doesn’t count.) So either Wes Brown or Glen Johnson or both will play right back on Wednesday.

Beckham’s still around. No complaints from me. And no complaints from Beckham’s Galaxy coach either, since he doesn’t really have one right now.