Prominent reasons why Chelsea's Ashley Cole was not included in England's final 23-man squad

Ashley Cole

The omission of Ashley Cole name from the final list of 23 players was quite shocking as Roy Hodgson preferred the youngster Luke Shaw over him. Immediately after being dropped from the team, Ashley Cole announced his retirement from international football. Respecting Hodgson’s decision he wrote on his twitter account: “I got the call from Roy and agree England team should be about the young players. I think it best I retire from England team now. We have a great manager and team and I wish them only success. I will be supporting them like a true fan. Thanks to everyone for everything.”

In fact Hodgson decision could easily backfire on him, given the teams they have to play up against in the World Cup. The Three Lions are placed in the Group of Death along with Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica; a group so tough that Cole’s experience could prove vital for Hodgson. But in the end Hodgson preferred to go with the youth rather than sticking to the out of form Cole. Hodgson decision was based on several factors, let’s take a look at them.

1) Age

No matter Cole was one the best fullback of England in the past; but we cannot ignore the fact that he has grown old. The 33 year old is well over his peak, he might have more experience than others, but his physical abilities are nowhere near what they used to be. His speed and stamina have waned along with time. His counterpart Shaw who is just 18 years old showed his sublime form after a remarkable season with The Saints, reasonably making Cole, Hodgson’s second choice.

2) Lack of playing time at Chelsea during 13/14 season

Ashley Cole’s playing time at Chelsea was considerably reduced this season. With most of the time he was benched and remained an unused sub, with Azpilicueta replacing him as Chelsea’s first choice left back. Cole started only 17 times for the Blues this season, much less compared to his last season 31 appearances. His worst performance came up against Newcastle; Blues lost that game 2-0, forcing Mourinho to bench him and give his spot to Azpilicueta for the remaining season.

3) Stupendous season for Luke Shaw

Luke enjoyed a remarkable season with the Saints, adding further woes to Cole’s chances of getting a place secured in final 23. Luke played in 35 out of a possible 38 games for the Saints, hardly giving any impression of being a teenager. Here are his stats for the 13/14 season and his comparison with Ashley Cole.

Looking at the comparison, Shaw definitely has an upper hand over Cole. He looked more stable at the back, providing way too many clearances than Cole and was more successful in dealing with aerial threats with a success rate of 55%. Not only that, he also created many chances up the field. Most importantly, committed no defensive errors given the fact he played 35 games, almost twice more than Cole. With a mature performance this season, no doubt Hodgson preferred Luke over Cole in his final list.

4) Failed to impress in the friendlies

1) England vs Germany

After being dropped from a regular spot in Chelsea, his only chance of getting a ticket to Brazil was to impress Hodgson in the international friendlies. Hodgson included his name in the starting XI against Germany, but the veteran failed to take any advantage of the situation instead looked rusty on the pitch. He was unable to cover Gotze, lacked pace and was often found off position.

In the above picture you can clearly see he let go Marco Reus, luckily Reus had an awful first touch otherwise it surely would have been a goal scoring opportunity.

Throughout the match he struggled to keep up with the pace of the young Germans. Here is another example of his rustiness on the pitch; he loses the ball to Gotze, ultimately leading to a deadly counter attack. By the 52 minute Hodgson had seen enough of Cole’s miserable play, he called him off substituting him with Gibbs.

2) England vs Denmark

In the next friendly against Denmark, he showed an average performance, but it was far better than his performance against Germany. He looked strong going up forward, crossed the ball successfully a couple of times. Although he showed signs of the mistakes he had committed against Germany, also no one could argue the fact that he lacked his old pace and composure on the pitch.

Here he again loses the ball, in a similar fashion as he did against Gotze. This time he was lucky that it didn’t lead to a counter attack. The second picture again shows his negligence, losing the ball to opposition. He played for only 45 minutes then got substituted.

Summing it up

After such poor display both for club and country, even Hodgson had no option other than to select the teenager Luke Shaw. But in matches against Italy and Uruguay his experience could have played a vital role, but the youngster deserves his spot after playing brilliantly throughout the season. Even Hodgson claimed that it was a tough decision to select Luke over Cole.

"Time will tell whether the decision was a good one or a bad one because the circumstances move," Hodgson said. "The circumstances [of an injury] … we might have been better off with Ashley. I can't deny that. I'm certain Luke Shaw wouldn't deny that. Then there might be other circumstances whereby I don't have that problem, I don't get the injury [to Baines], we go through the tournament and we get congratulated because we took a decision to give a very young player a big chance.”

Like Hodgson said, only time will tell whether the decision was a good one or bad one. But after calmly and carefully analyzing Cole's season and the fact that he has grown old, the decision to leave him out of the squad doesn’t seem that bizarre either.