England World Cup Squad Announced

England have announced the squad for the World Cup with just a couple of surprises.

The 23 man squad and 7 on standby will face Peru at Wembley on May 30th before flying out to the USA for friendlies against Ecuador and Honduras. They kick-off their World Cup campaign against Italy on the 14th of June before facing Uruguay on the 19th and Costa Rica on the 24th.

Here is the squad:

Goalkeepers

Joe Hart

Ben Foster

Fraser Forster

Defenders

Leighton Baines

Gary Cahill

Phil Jagielka

Glen Johnson

Phil Jones

Chris Smalling

Luke Shaw

Midfielders

Ross Barkley

Steven Gerrard

Jordan Henderson

Adam Lallana

Frank Lampard

James Milner

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Raheem Sterling

Jack Wilshere

Strikers

Ricky Lambert

Wayne Rooney

Daniel Sturrdige

Danny Welbeck

Standby

John Stones

John Fllanagan

John Ruddy

Tom Cleverley

Jermaine Defoe

Michael Carrick

Andy Carroll

I find it quite hard to disagree with this squad. Although I do think Jones and Smalling can count themselves lucky to be in the squad. Both have battled inconsistency this season with an under-performing Manchester United squad. I'm really happy to see Roy go with Luke Shaw and Ross Barkley. Adam Lallana definitely deserves a shot and it's hard to disagree with the omission of Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley.

I have to admit that I'm disappointed that John Ruddy didn't make the squad ahead of Foster after keeping nearly as many clean-sheets at Joe Hart. Norwich's relegation must have played a part in that decision.

John Stones has been fantastic this season and I completely agree that he should be on standby. It's likely he won't be needed but this is a good confidence boost for the youngster.