Why Fabio Capello Should Not Have Dropped Ben Foster

October 4th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

Turns out that if you do this…

…and then let Kenwyne Jones beat you in the air like this…

… while Fabio Capello watches from the stands … then you get dropped from the England squad. Fabio Capello has named his England squad to face Ukraine and Belarus, and Ben Foster is not in it.

Fair enough, he’s looking a bit shaky. But haven’t we tortured young England keepers enough?

Seems like every mistake gets magnified, confidence is undermined, and we’ve ruined another promising keeper before he’s had a chance to get comfortable.

Scott Carson and Paul Robinson are two recent examples. David James is still not trusted by everybody. But the list goes on. Remember Richard Wright? I can even vaguely remember a youngish David Seaman conceding a sloppy goal during the Graham Taylor era and being written off before he’d even got started.

From where I’m sitting (which is: in front of a laptop and having no experience in either club or international management) young English goalkeepers need confidence. So I would like to have seen Capello retain Ben Foster, just to reassure him.

Sure, there’ll be other England squads. But right now – with Edwin VDS out injured – Ben Foster is Man Utd’s first choice keeper. We can’t afford for him to be doing that job with a dent his confidence, because that could very easily lead to more mistakes and a worrying downward spiral.

So I would have kept him. But who am I to argue with Fabio Capello? A man who has taken what looked like a clueless England team in mid-2008, and qualified us for the World Cup with a 100% record.

Here’s the rest of the squad to face Ukraine and Belarus, in two no-pressure World Cup qualifiers:

Keepers: Robinson (Blackburn), Green (West Ham), James (Portsmouth);

Defenders: A Cole (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Johnson (Liverpool), Bridge (Manchester City), Lescott (Manchester City), Brown (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Upson (West Ham);

Mids: Milner (Aston Villa), Lampard (Chelsea), Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Gerrard (Liverpool), Barry (Manchester City), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Carrick (Manchester United), Lennon (Tottenham);

Strikers: Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Heskey (Aston Villa), Crouch (Tottenham), C Cole (West Ham), Rooney (Manchester United).

I’m a little saddened to see no Ashley Young, but am hoping his Villa teammates James Milner and Gabby Agbonlahor get a chance to impress.

One final question regarding keepers: Who starts in these games? David James or Robert Green?

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kamal

Sure, there’ll be other England squads. But right now – with Edwin VDS out injured – Ben Foster is Man Utd’s first choice keeper. We can’t afford for him to be doing that job with a dent his confidence, because that could very easily lead to more mistakes and a worrying downward spiral.——-well first of all i am a man utd fan and what i saw is that foster got too many chances to prove but he always come up with a another silly mistake ,if we leave his aerial mistakes still he is not comfortable with his rightfoot ,anybackpass on his right side make him look small ,,and now back on your article its not cappello,s job to insure that foster do well to replace vds ,,its not his job to build on a player ,,he is in incharge of a englishteam who has star players with very high profilic club careers who fails to does it for their nation ,cappello cant take gamble on foster as world cup coming on the sake of his future promises,,cappello always stciks to pick players on the basis of there current form and foster currently is the weakest point in the man utd ,how could you wish cappello to pick a player who even does not deserve a starting role in his club team in the absence of no1 contender,,
beside getting praise from sir fergie but else made you think that foster is a promising future star,
in short in response to your article
1]its not capello job to assure that a sub ll do good for his club
2]capello cant afford same mistake at international stage
3]even ashley young and walcot are not in the team why dont you speak out for them ,isnt they more promising players for england then foster
4]even the two coming matches are not important but how can a national coach want to break his 100%record
5]as vds is still not fit foster ll get more chances[which must be gone to kuzack]so its all on him nobody is harming him in anysense so how can you said that he going to be history with capello,s selection before he rises,,
6]please tell me a performance of foster where he proved to be a worth for worldcup
7]man utd overall defence has been one of the best in world in recent seasons even this cant help foster a bit
8]foster has reflexes and shot stoping abilities but his positiong and reactions are major concern
9]i know foster lacks confidence but he never proven himself at any stage to such a extend that he worth a gamble ,
10]no one tortured as much as foster himself tortured him and every single fan of man utd
http://www.persemprepallone.blogspot.com Joel

Why no Darren Bent?
http://norway.worldcupblog.org HJ

As Joel said, I would have given Bent a chance instead of Carlton Cole. Ashley Young hasn’t been anywhere near his standard from last year.

I would like to see some other players been given a chance, since these two games are without consequences, and especially since some of the chosen players aren’t playing up to their standards at this moment. Carrick and Heskey being two of them.