How this England XI averaged 30 caps each, only God knows. Perhaps Kieran Richardson could ask him. The front two scored 15 goals in 109 caps between them.
This XI was first named to supplement this list of 10 undercapped England players. The last four years have seen some changes…
GK: Fraser Forster (6)
Joe Hart, with 75 caps, is the obvious shout here given only Peter Shilton has kept goal for England more times than the Hart-dog. But, in fairness, Hart was easily the best of what was available to England for quite some time. Until he wasn’t. Then he was out.
Forster was at Celtic when he earned his first cap – a 2-0 home defeat to Chile. Tending the the Bhoys’ goal was then a cushy gig, given there were generally only six testing games a season, so it was presumably a couple of decent performances when Barcelona had shooting practice which caught Roy Hodgson’s eye. His last squad appearance came in October 2017, not a moment too soon.
RB: Glen Johnson (54)
Had the then-Stoke defender not been forced to pull out of Gareth Southgate’s squad for qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia in 2016, Johnson may have extended his international career to 13 years. He still had well over a decade around the England squad, during which time he amassed 54 caps, the same number as Sir Stanley Matthews.
CB: Michael Keane (12)
Keane replaces Matt Upson in this latest Overcapped XI. Upson played in the same era as John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ledley King and Jamie Carragher and still he claimed 21 caps. The competition for Keane has been rather less grand but still he has a dozen international appearances under Southgate.
Only two of those came as a Burnley player, when he was at his best. He has 10 appearances as an Evertonian, during which time he had rather less business being around the England squad. In fairness, it was a toss-up between Keane and Tyrone Mings, who has 17 caps and couldn’t get in the Villa team this season when everyone was fit.
CB: Martin Keown (43)
The former Arsenal defender was another who was never quite good enough to be first choice but still came within seven of a half-century of caps. Graham Taylor gave him his debut while Keown was still at Everton, before Terry Venables then completely ignored him.
Glenn Hoddle’s preference for a back three brought a return for Keown, who earned three-quarters of his caps after his 30th birthday. Somehow, he managed to wangle trips to two World Cups and a couple of European…
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