Barry: England spoilt for choice

Barry: England spoilt for choice

Published Nov. 17, 2011 7:15 a.m. ET

Midfielder Barry acknowledges that the days of an England head coach having limited options when it comes to naming his squad for a tournament are in the past. The emergence of Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck, Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker, Jack Rodwell and Daniel Sturridge in the past few months has increased the options available to manager Fabio Capello. Jones, in particular, caught the eye when playing in an unaccustomed midfield role in the 1-0 victories over Spain on Saturday and Sweden on Tuesday night. Barry said: "The players coming through are there now. There are more options. "I think the manager has got to be very pleased with the way these two games have gone and the way the players have adapted. "The younger players have come in and shown great confidence. "There are not just 23 players to pick from. You are probably looking at 30-35 players who have got a realistic chance of coming in. "With the way these games have gone, no-one has let themselves down, there have been some great performances. The competition is really good. "The manager has got plenty of options to bring different people in to play against different opposition." When asked who had impressed him, Barry said: "Probably you've got to look at Phil Jones, playing out of position. "He looked as if he has played there all his career. It is not his natural game but it is another option for the manager. He has done really well there." But Barry insists England's woeful 2010 World Cup campaign will mean there is no over the top claims about how the Three Lions will perform next summer. He believes England are still short of the quality of sides such as Spain despite defeating the World Cup winners at Wembley. Barry said: The momentum is there. But we've got to keep it going because there are tougher tests ahead. "We can't say we are going into it as the best team in the tournament because we probably know we are not. "You can look at it very deeply and say Spain are a better team, a step above us in terms of quality. They probably showed that when we played them the other day. "The fact we did beat them showed that on our day we can beat anybody." But Barry warned: "We are not getting carried away after the World Cup. Everyone knows the way we qualified last time, the expectations then went through the roof. "We flew through the group, didn't concede many goals and played some great stuff, and then it didn't go so well in South Africa. "When it comes to the business end, the tournament, that is where you need to perform and get that winning habit."

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