Nicky Shorey was expected to start the weekend international with Estonia to prevent Ashley Cole from picking up a booking, he didn’t and Cole picked up an injury instead, which could have opened the door to him.
When Cole was forced off with what looked a serious injury against Estonia, as Shorey was not named among the substitutes Phil Neville was the man to come on. A switch in the defence eventually saw Joleon Lescott take up the left back area, with him having previously come on to replace Rio Ferdinand, with a view to preventing him picking up an unwanted yellow card.
Until Luke Young was called up as a replacement for the injured Cole it left Shorey as the only recognised left back in the squad so it was expected that Shorey would get the nod to start the match with Russia this week. Both Lescott and Shorey are very inexperienced at international level, but it seems likely that Steve McClaren will resist the temptation of playing the experienced Neville and will decided between these two, and Lescott is the man tipped to win this battle.
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It will be a disappointment to Shorey to miss out, if he does. It does look as if Lescott will get the nod however.
to be honest mate you cant say lescottt isn’t a recognised left back, he played there all year last season!
For me it should be shorey, but not in a game like this.
He might have played last season at left back, but he isn’t an out and out left back is he, Shorey is.
Lescott may be used to playing at left back, but he didn’t look like it yesterday did he, this is why a fully recognised left back such as Shorey should have been used in my opinion.