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A lack of experience

England's World Cup squad is the least experienced it has fielded in recent times in terms of the number of top level games played. Over the past two years players in the squad have averaged 25 full games a season in the 'big five' leagues and the Champions League. This compares with England's squad for the 2002 tournament where players averaged 30 games a season.

Part of the reason may be the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the Premier League where players are attracted from around the world by big wages and high profile games. In 1992 English footballers took part in 69 per cent of all minutes played in the Premier League, compared with 34 per cent today. In contrast Spanish players take part in 58 per cent of the minutes played in La Liga, and German players get 45 per cent of all match time in the Bundesliga.

The reluctance of English players to move overseas also limits the match time that they got last season. Last season, English players appeared in 3,523 games between them at the top level. Spainards managed double that number of appearances.

England ends up fishing in a shallow pool for players.

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