This was originally posted by ToffeeBrandon our Everton Forum but we decided to promote it as a fan article to our main site.

It was probably obvious to all just how many English players were involved in the FA Cup Semi-Final. In the past I have taken little to no interest in the national side as it has rarely featured Everton players and those have been cameo appearances at best.

Anyway, 6 English players played the entire 120 minutes (Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Osman, Neville) with a further 2 coming off the bench (Vaughan & Rodwell) in the semi final. We also had a further 1 on the bench (Gosling). Of those, only Jags, Lescott & Neville have been capped, with Joleon & Phil making cameo appearances at best. Considering this team has overcome 3 teams from the top 5 of English football on their way to the final why is English talent outside the top 4 overlooked so much?

Semi final stats (English players)
Everton: 6 all game, 2 used subs, 1 unused sub = 9 (3:6)
Chelsea: 3 all game = 3 (3:0)
Man Utd: 3 all game, 1 used sub, 1 unused sub = 5 (4:1)
Arsenal: 2 all game = 2 (1:1)

United capped: Ferdinand, Foster, Neville, Scholes
United uncapped: Wellbeck
Arsenal capped: Walcott
Arsenal uncapped: Gibbs
Chelsea capped: Terry, Cole, Lampard

So we had the most English players in the semi-final, in particular 6 playing all 120 minutes of which only 3 have seen full international football. To me it seems that we are overlooked because. . . we are not in the top 4. Seems quite obvious, also it shows that we field teams on the big stages which would comply to any homegrown guidelines, albeit we would have had Yak and Arteta playing if possible, but more than anything, all that overlooked English talent would simply transfer itself into the top 4 if they brought in the ‘homegrown quota’, and the national game would little improve, if not worsen with lower domestic standards (lets face it, every nation on earth has improved its football a lot over the last few decades).

Discuss this here: http://followeverton.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6542

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