f365 steal: Top 10 Overcapped England Players

[YateleyRoyal]

Owen Hargreaves has 42 caps - see comments for Keiron Dyer.

My personal unfavourite on this topic would be Ray Wilkins, his 84 caps compare nicely to Glenn Hoddles haul of 53.

Obvs I've wikied these totals.

Hargreaves? He made the team of the tournament in 2006 and was one of England's best players for 3 years. Completely disagree here.

[sandman]

Good player before the Injuries and could have played for you more rather than overcapped. Also had experience of a different football culture which more English players could do with.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

Theo walcott

[From Despair To Where?]

I'd be tempted to say John Barnes who generally underperformed for England but that's forgetting that for a period of 5 years, Chris Waddle was the only English winger who could hold a candle to him in club football.

[bobbybottler]

Owen Hargreaves has 42 caps - see comments for Keiron Dyer.

My personal unfavourite on this topic would be Ray Wilkins, his 84 caps compare nicely to Glenn Hoddles haul of 53.

Obvs I've wikied these totals.

Hargreaves? He made the team of the tournament in 2006 and was one of England's best players for 3 years. Completely disagree here.

Yeah Hargreaves, he was barely adequate in a boring functional team, and failed to make the team of the tournament in 2006, what the fuck are you talking about?

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/ge ... 31923.html if this helps you at all.

[bobbybottler]

.......also had experience of a different football culture which more English players could do with.

Certainly not going to disagree with that.

[bobbybottler]

I'd like to move, if I may, to Singapore's greatest footballing export, Terence Ian Butcher

87 caps in all, the majority of these gained under the tutelage of Bobby Robson, his former club manager at Ipswich, many gained whilst keeping far better players (I am thinking about Des Walker (a criminally low 59 caps) as I type this) out of the team.

At the end of the 1980s the best three centre backs in the country were the peerless Walker, then Mark Wright and Paul Parker. Robson kept picking Butcher, who had the mobility of a built-in wardrobe but more importantly was a "leader", such as in that joke of a performance against Sweden.

That fucking Sweden game, what a bloody hero, he couldn't have touched the ball more than half a dozen times in the second half, wandering around miles off the play, gurning away at anyone rash enough to make eye contact with him - anyone who has seen my own performances at FFF will know exactly what I mean - it was a real watching through your fingers OMG of a performance, I can recall yelling at my TV telling Robson to sub him as Sweden hit the woodwork again and again arrrrghhh.

* and relax *

Please don't start me off on Tony Adams.

[YateleyRoyal]

Owen Hargreaves has 42 caps - see comments for Keiron Dyer.

My personal unfavourite on this topic would be Ray Wilkins, his 84 caps compare nicely to Glenn Hoddles haul of 53.

Obvs I've wikied these totals.

Hargreaves? He made the team of the tournament in 2006 and was one of England's best players for 3 years. Completely disagree here.

Yeah Hargreaves, he was barely adequate in a boring functional team, and failed to make the team of the tournament in 2006, what the fuck are you talking about?

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/ge ... 31923.html if this helps you at all.

My mistake. Still a good player for england at the time - In 2006, he won both England Player of the Year, and England Player of the World Cup in official FA polls, the first to win both in the same year.

Hargreaves picked up the Man of the match award in England's 4–0 win over Greece on 16 August 2006. On 30 January 2007 he was voted England Player of the Year 2006, as voted for by visitors to the Official FA site

[barelylubedcock]

Hargreaves was ridiculously underrated for a bit because he played abroad and was used as a utility sub. I remember him basically getting subbed on to play upfront/second striker in a game and him and another player just staring at each other going "yeah, I've no idea either". Then in 2006 against Portugal he got to play in something approaching his usual role and also scored his penalty like a good German. After that he fell into the "you know who's underrated ... " category.

[reading_fan]

My one cap (too many) wonder - David Nugent.

Part of the problem with the generational comparisons is that there are far more internationals played now so it makes it easier for even mediocre players to amass a relatively high number of caps, especially compared to the international players of the past, who were obviously better e.g. the SWP to Nat Lofthouse comparison

[Wax Jacket]

I'd like to move, if I may, to Singapore's greatest footballing export, Terence Ian Butcher

87 caps in all, the majority of these gained under the tutelage of Bobby Robson, his former club manager at Ipswich, many gained whilst keeping far better players (I am thinking about Des Walker (a criminally low 59 caps) as I type this) out of the team.

At the end of the 1980s the best three centre backs in the country were the peerless Walker, then Mark Wright and Paul Parker. Robson kept picking Butcher, who had the mobility of a built-in wardrobe but more importantly was a "leader", such as in that joke of a performance against Sweden.

That fucking Sweden game, what a bloody hero, he couldn't have touched the ball more than half a dozen times in the second half, wandering around miles off the play, gurning away at anyone rash enough to make eye contact with him - anyone who has seen my own performances at FFF will know exactly what I mean - it was a real watching through your fingers OMG of a performance, I can recall yelling at my TV telling Robson to sub him as Sweden hit the woodwork again and again arrrrghhh.

* and relax *

Please don't start me off on Tony Adams.

^ now that's more like it

[6ft Kerplunk]

I am thinking about Des Walker (a criminally low 59 caps)

Sadly for Walker he went to Italy, got played out of position, lost confidence and never seemed to quite get back to his previous level. Such a shame as he was excellent before the dip.

Problem with looking back more than a decade at players with a lot of caps is you forget just how unchallenged a lot of them were for their place. They may have been bad but most of them were the best of a poor lot.

[MouldyRoyal]

The fact that Cleverley has several caps is a bit of a shocker.

[bobbybottler]

Problem with looking back more than a decade at players with a lot of caps is you forget just how unchallenged a lot of them were for their place. They may have been bad but most of them were the best of a poor lot.

I'd agree with that, someone mentioned Mick Mills earlier and he was indeed a terrible player but until Sansom came along he had no-one challenging him for a place.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

James Milner. 34 caps. How?

[leon]

James Milner. 34 caps. How?

exactly - he works hard. Does fuck all

[Big Ern]

Owen Hargreaves has 42 caps - see comments for Keiron Dyer..

I like how Hargreaves was the target of lots of lols, manager target for lots of criticism for selecting him for quite some time then he had a great game against Portugal and he is the new messiah with everyone all of a sudden looking at each other knowingly and said 'great engine on him'

Agree. Anyone who didn't rate Hargreaves knows nothing about football. Best technically gifted player we have produced in the last 15 years...mainly coz the Germans produced him for us. Such a shame for his injuries. England really lost out.

[St. Brynjar]

Milner, P. Neville, Dyer and Jenas for me.

Downing & Hargreaves are unfairly maligned - one poor season for Downing amongst every other season at Middlesbrough, Villa and even this year at Liverpool seem to pepper people's opinion of him.

[Big Ern]

Milner is on the way to joining the list, although I would argue that 1 cap is 1 too many.

Carlton Palmer is another

[barelylubedcock]

Milner's a squad player. Can play reasonably well in about 3 or 4 positions, hard working and won't mind being in the squad but not necessarily on the pitch. England team does need a player or two like that and he's probably the best of the contenders. Also, when he had a season at centre-mid for Villa only a few years back, he was exceptional.

He's clearly not awful, but shouldn't necessarily be starting with a full squad ahead of him.