As England have already qualified for Euro 2016 in France, the remaining fixtures at home to Estonia and away at Lithuania are all but nailed on for maximum points for the Three Lions, meaning their importance have decreased.
Admittedly, winning the last two fixtures in Group E will give the squad bags of confidence going into the tournament, as well as winning the upcoming friendlies against Spain, France and Germany. So with Luke Shaw, who was quickly becoming England’s first choice left back, is now out for six months with a broken leg, who will fill the void left by the Manchester United full back?
The obvious selection would be Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs. With his vast amount of experience and his involvement in a top four club like the Gunners, Gibbs will most certainly move up the ranks.
However, despite Tottenham Hotspur’s sluggish start to the season, Danny Rose will have a chance of pulling on the England shirt in the summer of 2016. What a massive mistake manager Roy Hodgson would be making if he did that, considering he has failed to even take a glimpse at West Ham United’s immaculate Aaron Cresswell.
In relation to England’s qualification and friendly games lined up in preparation for next summer’s European Championships, experimenting with the team has now become pivotal.
After last season’s extraordinary first season in England’s top flight, it’s extremely strange to see that the likes of Gibbs and Rose have won more caps than the 25-year-old.
The former Ipswich Town player, who went from Portman Road to Upton Park for a bargain £4m last summer, was voted as the Hammer of the Year in the 2014/2015 season and failed to miss a single Premier League game for the Hammers last term.
So far, Cresswell has already reached double figures for appearances in the current campaign after playing the full 90 minutes in every league game so far, as well as being involved in the Europe League qualifiers from the 16th July against Maltese minnows FC Birkirkara.
Only West Ham’s 4-3 defeat in front of their own fans against newly promoted AFC Bournemouth did Cresswell have what is known as a ‘Weston-Super-Mare’ of a game, gifting Callum Wilson two of his three goals he scored that afternoon.
However, after that unexpected dreadful performance, Cresswell has learned from his costly errors and has obviously been given some stern words from Hammers boss Slaven Bilic. Since then Cresswell has played impeccably, keeping two clean sheets, first in the incredible 3-0 away win against Liverpool and then in the comfortable home win against a troubled Newcastle United side, before producing a solid display in the excellent 2-1 away victory at the Etihad Stadium.
On the basis that Creswell has made a steady and effective beginning to the 2015/2016 campaign despite a dodgy 90 minutes against the Cherries in August, putting an out of form Gibbs and Rose in front of Cresswell, is quite frankly out of order by Hodgson.
With the plethora of top flight experience he has under his belt, Cresswell definitely deserves a crack in an England shirt, or at least experience Wembley Stadium for the first time in his career.
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