Forget the silly season for sometime and get into the mood of the World Cup for a bit. We here at soccersouls have lined up XI players from the Premier League, who could do well with their respective national teams when the showdown kicks off on June 12th.
Goalkeeper:
David De Gea personally had a good season under the sticks for Manchester United, while Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet, barring some obvious mistakes was well assured, unfortunately the Anfield side’s goalkeeper is second choice to Thiabut Courtois for Mats Wilmots’ side. Crystal palace’s Julian Speroni was brilliant though by the way while Golden Glove winners Petr Cech and Wojciech Szczesny will miss out the action in Brazil as their respective countries have failed to make the cut. This leaves us with the obvious choice in Manchester City’s Joe Hart who stakes a claim under the sticks in our Premier League World Cup X1.
Honorable mention: Tim Howard (USA)
Defenders:
For the left back slot, Everton’s Leighton Baines will be a key figure for Roy Hodgson’s side and picks himself up in the side. Argentine Pablo Zabaleta will man our right back slot with his overlapping runs giving an extra dimension to the Albiceleste in their already enviable front four.
Belgium are certainly everyone’s dark horses going into the showpiece tournament and when you have a defender of Vincent Kompany’s caliber, you can be reassured at the back as the Manchester City Captain partners Chelsea’s brilliant Gary Cahill at the heart of our defense. Cahill was an integral part of Chelsea’s parsimonious defense in the 2013-14 campaign. Close contenders should be Arsenal’s Laurent Koscienly and Bacary Sagna who have to over come the likes of Raphael Varane and Mathieu Debuchy for a spot in the France’s starting XI.
Honorable mention: Per Mertesacker (Germany)