Only five Championship teams fielded more English players than Boro in the last round of games, according to a new survey.
The pool of talent available to the England national team has recently been in the spotlight, with FA chairman Greg Dyke announcing changes to the work permit system and proposals to increase the number of homegrown players in Premier League squads.
The regulations are all with a view to boosting England’s performance at major tournaments.
A new survey has ranked each team in the top four divisions and calculated how many players in their starting XI in the latest round of matches were eligible for England duty.
The percentage of England-qualified players starting in the Championship was 57.2%, compared to 36.8% in the Premier League, 76.5% in League One and 86% in League Two.
Boro's players applaud travelling fans
Blackburn and Huddersfield fielded the most English players in the Championship on the weekend of March 21, each with nine.
Blackpool, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest are next with eight, with Boro among six teams fielding seven English players.
Boro’s Ben Gibson, George Friend, Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton, Adam Reach, Lee Tomlin and Patrick Bamford all started in the 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth, and are eligible to play for England.
Dimi Konstantopoulos (Greece), Emilio Nsue (Equatorial Guinea), Tomas Kalas (Czech Republic) and Albert Adomah (Ghana) made up Aitor Karanka’s starting XI.
Four of Boro's English players
Out of all 24 Championship teams, Watford were the club that fielded the fewest English players, with only three (Tommie Hoban, Ben Watson and Troy Deeney) eligible for Roy Hodgson’s side.
In the Premier League, Burnley topped the list with seven of their starting 11 against Southampton meeting the criteria for selection, and with all 11 born in the UK.
Tottenham had a six-strong group who featured against Leicester, while five of the Manchester United team which won at Liverpool were England internationals.
Premier League high-flyers Chelsea and Manchester City were at the bottom of the chart, each fielding only two Englishmen in their teams.
Boro striker Patrick Bamford training with England's senior team
Central defensive pair Gary Cahill and John Terry were part of Jose Mourinho’s defence as they won 3-2 at Hull, another team with just two England-qualified starters, while Man City had only Joe Hart and retired England midfielder Frank Lampard in their side.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been credited for adding a greater English element to his side in recent years, but the team which won at Newcastle featured only two who would qualify - Calum Chambers and Danny Welbeck.
Team by team - number of English players in Championship starting XIs for matches played over the weekend of March 21-22.
Blackburn - 9
Huddersfield - 9
Blackpool - 8
Bournemouth - 8
Nottingham Forest - 8
Bolton - 7
Brentford - 7
Derby - 7
Leeds - 7
Middlesbrough - 7
Wolves - 7
Brighton - 6
Cardiff - 6
Fulham - 6
Ipswich - 6
Millwall - 6
Rotherham - 6
Sheff Wed - 6
Wigan - 6
Birmingham - 5
Charlton - 4
Norwich - 4
Watford - 3
151 out of 264 players eligible: 57.2%
No comments:
Post a Comment