How English is your team?

30 March 2015 17:16

Burnley possessed the most English starting XI of any Premier League team in the last round of games, with seven players in Sean Dyche’s team eligible to play for Roy Hodgson’s men.

Tom Heaton, Ben Mee, Jason Shackell, Kieran Trippier, Ashley Barnes, David Jones and Danny Ings meet the criteria for selection, with none of the XI who played against Southampton on Saturday, March 21 drawn from outside the United Kingdom. However, none of that English contingent have yet featured in one of Hodgson’s senior squads.

The pool of English talent has again been in the spotlight over the last fortnight with Football Association chairman Greg Dyke announcing changes to the work permit system and proposals to increase the number of homegrown players in Premier League squads, all with a view to boosting England’s performance at major tournaments.

Graphic showing percentage of Premier League players available to play for England

Harry Kane – held up by Dyke as the sort of talent whose development must not be stifled by foreign imports – heads a six-strong group who featured for Tottenham against Leicester, including fellow new call-up Ryan Mason, while five of the Manchester United team which won at Liverpool were England internationals.

At the bottom end of the chart are the leading two teams in the Premier League, Chelsea and Manchester City. 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 Manchester City had only Joe Hart and retired England midfielder Frank Lampard in their XI.

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.

Overall, only 81 of the 220 Premier League starters last weekend were eligible for England selection – a fairly pitiful 36.8 per cent.

Graphic showing percentage of players in the Premier League and Serie A eligible for the leagues' respective national teams

England face Italy on Tuesday night, and the proportion of players in Serie A starting line-ups who were born in Italy – or have otherwise represented Italy at senior level – over the same weekend was 43.2 per cent. That proportion would increase still further if you included those who may qualify under residency rules or those – typically of South American birth – who hold Italian passports due to their ancestry.

In the English Championship, the most ‘English’ teams were Blackburn and Huddersfield with nine, with a few caveats.
Huddersfield duo Sean Scannell and Joel Lynch both appear to have nailed their colours to the masts of the Republic of Ireland and Wales respectively, yet neither has made a senior competitive appearance yet so are still technically eligible for England.

Adam Henley is still England-qualified for Blackburn after he was an unused substitute in Wales’ Euro 2016 qualifier in Israel. Until Matt Ritchie featured for Scotland against Gibraltar on Sunday Bournemouth also had nine, with the Cherries’ Republic of Ireland call-up Harry Arter still England-qualified as he did not feature for the Irish against Poland.

Graphic showing percentage of Championship players available to play for England

The percentage of England-qualified players starting in the Championship was 57.2 per cent, rising to 76.1 per cent in League One and 86.0 per cent in League Two.

Five teams in League One – Bristol City, Chesterfield, Colchester, Crewe and Rochdale – were just one player shy of an entirely England-qualified XI.

Graphic showing percentage of players from each of the English leagues eligible to play for England

You had to go down to League Two to find a fully England-qualified XI, with AFC Wimbledon, Hartlepool and Southend flying the flag. Southend’s Adam Thompson has won two caps for Northern Ireland, but both came in the 2011 Nations Cup which does not classify as an official competition under FIFA regulations, so he technically remains eligible for England.

Graphic showing percentage of League One players available to play for England
Graphic showing percentage of League Two players available to play for England

Source: SNAPPA