{"id":819,"date":"2018-06-06T11:39:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T06:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/?p=819"},"modified":"2018-06-06T13:32:28","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T08:02:28","slug":"world-cup-russia-2018-football-tribe-absent-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/2018\/06\/06\/world-cup-russia-2018-football-tribe-absent-xi\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Russia 2018: Football Tribe Absent XI"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Anthony Martial, Mauro Icardi and Leroy Sane among those missing the cut for World Cup squads on Monday, we pick the best Absent XI of players who will not be on the plane to Russia. Here, we take a look at 11 players who make up a strong Absent XI, but will not be featuring at the World Cup 2018 Russia.<\/p>\n

1.Joe Hart-Goalkeeper<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The 31-year-old goalkeeper was dropped by manager Gareth Southgate from England World Cup 2018, Hart would have been third-choice but his experience, given he was England number one throughout the qualification campaign and has 75 caps, appeared to suggest he was still going to be included.
\nThe decision is a surprise given it had been expected Hart would be selected as one of England\u2019s three goalkeepers along with Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland. At the start of last season, Southgate described Hart as England\u2019s \u201cbest goalkeeper\u201d but things have changed dramatically since then.<\/p>\n

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2.Alex Sandro-Left back<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Juventus left-back Alex Sandro is widely considered one of the best defenders in his role alongside Real Madrid\u2019s Marcelo and Bayern Munich ace David Alaba.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThe Brazilian defender has emerged as the best left-back in Serie A and one of the best in the world through some stunning performances with Juventus this term. Despite his performances, however, senior Brazil national team coach Tite has not called Alex Sandro for the next two games of the\u00a0Sele\u00e7ao.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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3.David Luiz-Centre Back<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Chelsea defender David Luiz also misses out but he has not featured in a Brazil squad for almost two years. At 31 now, David\u00a0Luiz can still\u00a0iron out some of his flaws to be a top defender. Even if he hasn\u2019t, he would seem odds-on for some role in any team with his leadership role.<\/p>\n

Luiz is far from perfect, but he has his admirers and is popular among the squad. A player who has plenty of international pedigree, Luiz has been capped over 50 times for Brazil, but will not play for his country in Russia after missing the last three months of the season for Chelsea. It is not the first time he has been left out by Brazil for a major tournament though, also missing the Copa America Centenario in 2016.<\/p>\n

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4.Aymeric\u00a0Laporte-Centre Back<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Manchester City centre-back is the most expensive player ever without an international cap, the \u00a357million January acquisition remarkably never having appeared for Les Bleus. His role as a squad player in the second half of City’s all-conquering Premier League campaign was not enough.<\/p>\n

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5.\u00a0Hector Bellerin-Right Back<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bellerin, 23, made the cut two years ago for Euro 2016 but has been overlooked this time in favour of Real Sociedad\u2019s Alvaro Odriozola and Real Madrid\u2019s Dani Carvajal. Bellerin has not been in the best of form though and has received criticism from some sections of the Gunners support, but the Barcelona interest could still make a comeback given his virtuoso of talent and can transform to a top class right back.<\/p>\n

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6.Cesc Fabregas-Midfield<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The 30-year-old’s last call-up to the Spanish national side was at Euro 2016 where he played in their last-16 match against Italy, which ended in a 2-0 win for the Azzurri. Despite being snubbed by loptegui’s Spanish squad,\u00a0the midfielder has plenty of experience of helping Spain win major titles. Indeed, Fabregas played 63 minutes of La Roja’s Euro 2008 final win over Germany before coming on as a late substitute as La Roja beat the Netherlands 1-0 in the 2010 World Cup final – in which he set up Andres Iniesta for the winning goal.<\/p>\n

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7.Radja Nainggolan-Midfield<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Roberto\u00a0Mart\u00ednez didn\u2019t include Nainggolan\u2019s name in his World Cup 2018 squad, stating that the 30-year-old Roma man still couldn\u2019t work in his setup. The decision instantly set the internet alight, spurring frissons of vitriol and confusion among Belgium fans and neutrals alike.<\/p>\n

While Nainggolan\u2019s rebellious attitude has made him popular with Roma and Belgium fans, it appears to not have served him well in this case. Mart\u00ednez has been said to him as more of a number 10 \u2013 an in-demand position with a smorgasbord of world-class Belgian players able to play there \u2013 as well as not being impressed with Nainggolan\u2019s attitude, which tested the Belgium manager most when the midfielder turned up late to team meetings despite a strong telling off about his punctuality.<\/p>\n

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8.Leroy Sane-Midfield<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Sane, 22, was a surprise omission from the defending champions’ 23-man squad.<\/p>\n

The PFA Young Player of the Year scored 14 goals and provided 19 assists as City won the Premier League title. Sane had played in six of Germany’s past seven games, including starting in their most recent game – Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Austria and has age on his side to break into the German side which boasts of a formidable midfeild in the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n

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9.Anthony Martial-Forward<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Martial will be disappointed at his omission but the forward suffered a dip in form at Manchester United towards the end of the season. The 22-year-old has been in and out of Jose Mourinho’s team and has not scored or assisted a goal since February.<\/p>\n

Currently on standby for France, Martial has suffered for an up and down season with Manchester United, where he started 18 of the 38 Premier League games. He was included in the Euro 2016 squad – playing in three games – but still just 22 years old, this is certainly not the beginning of the end for his international career and still has many years ahead to make a World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

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10.Alvaro Morata-Forward<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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It has been a frustrating season for Morata since his move to Chelsea and has failed to find his feet, netting just 11 Premier League goals in 31 games. However, he has a good history of scoring for Spain, having netted 12 goals in 17 appearances in 2016 and 2017, including three goals at the Euros. But this has not guaranteed him a place in Russia, with the likes of former Real Madrid team-mates Isco and Marco Asensio plus ex-Chelsea striker Diego Costa preferred instead.<\/p>\n

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11.Mauro Icardi-Forward<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Even after scoring 29 Serie A goals in 34 games for Inter in the 2017\/18 season, Icardi was not included in Argentina’s 23-man squad, showing the incredible attacking depth they have. Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain are the men chosen up front. There’s no doubting Icardi’s quality, but Argentina simply have so much attacking talent, they can afford to leave him out. It’s difficult to say if Messi has any influence on Sampaoli’s selection, but what is not in doubt is that their only chance of success this summer is with the Barcelona maestro in the team.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Anthony Martial, Mauro Icardi and Leroy Sane among those missing the cut for World Cup squads on Monday, we pick the best Absent XI of players who will not be on the plane to Russia. Here, we take a look at 11 players who make up a strong Absent XI, but will not be featuring at the World Cup 2018 Russia. 1.Joe Hart-Goalkeeper   The 31-year-old goalkeeper was dropped by manager Gareth Southgate from England World Cup 2018, Hart would have been third-choice but his experience, given he was England number one throughout the qualification campaign and has 75 caps, appeared to suggest he was still going to be … Continue reading “World Cup Russia 2018: Football Tribe Absent XI”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[365,357,358,363,361,364,355,362,366,359,356,360],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alex-sandro","tag-alvaro-morata","tag-anthony-martial","tag-aymeric-laporte","tag-cesc-fabregas","tag-david-luiz","tag-football-tribe-absent-xi","tag-hector-bellerin","tag-joe-hart","tag-leroy-sane","tag-mauro-icardi","tag-radja-nainggolan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}