Picking a lineup is useful less for who makes the cut than for what the process says about the current state of the game
The Fifa world rankings rarely fail to raise an eyebrow. Óscar Washington Tabárez is one of the world’s great coaches but are Uruguay, who scraped a 2-1 win over Chile on Thursday, really the sixth-best side in the world right now? Nobody who saw England’s notional first-choice centre-back pairing of Harry Maguire and Joe Gomez in separate action for their clubs last Sunday would feel comfortable with their ranking of fourth. Germany 14th: when do we start talking seriously about Jogi Löw? And Belgium, whom England face on Sunday, top? Even after 12 straight wins before Thursday’s draw with Ivory Coast, even as their Golden Generation lingers at the summit, how many of their side would get in an Earth XI to take on Mars?
There is a danger in posing such questions of sounding like Michael Owen, boldly insisting that no Croat would get into the England side after Steve McClaren’s team had failed to qualify for Euro 2008, twice losing to Croatia. But the exercise of picking a World XI is useful, less for the names included in the final lineup than for what the process says about the state of the game (or at least it does if you do it properly, rather than acting like Florentino Pérez in his gálacticos pomp and just ramming together loads of famous players).
