Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football
Just my opinion but the English are way better in their own mind than they actually are. They think because they have good teams in the EPL that makes them good, forgetting that half the players are from somewhere else. The rankings I really don't pay much attention to except as a general view.
Even with the amount of foreign players in the Premier League, it's not like they just brought role players and scrubs from those PL clubs.
I think the point that their midfield isn't as strong as their defense or (some) attacking options says a lot more about it than anything else.
Now here's a question for you. Does Bradley, or Altidore, or Guzan make the MNT for the 2018 WC?
Bradley is a shell of what he was in Bundesliga and Serie A, and yet still is a fixture in our lineup. I say he remains as long as his game doesn't completely slip. Granted, we have quite a few up-and-coming/may-or-may-not-pan-out midfielders, so maybe enough of them develop in the next two years that Bradley becomes expendable, but somehow I doubt it. Even less likely that our defensive corps develop enough that we can move Fabian Johnson or Deandre Yedlin up into the back-end of the midfield.
Altidore has probably already lost his spot to Bobby Wood, who plays Altidore's role better than Altidore ever could. That said, we've seen what happens when we have no depth at that role, and it sucks. Since all of our forwards and midfielders seem to be better on the wings or are terrible like Wondo, I say there's a good chance that Altidore is at least a sub on the team. He only gets the boot if some of our young guns (Pulisic, Green, etc.) really develop a lot in the next two years or if some of the other middling options at forward/midfield (Johannsson, Diskerud, etc.) regain their form.
Guzan... seriously, I'm not sure who replaces him. Unless Horvath, Cropper AND some other guy become full-time Premier League backstops I don't see why we would leave Guzan home.