The World Cup XI that were left behind

The World Cup XI that were left behind

BeSoccer 6 years ago 4.4k |

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Morata missed out on the Spain squad but made it into the World Cup Missing XI. AFP

With the majority of the World Cup squads having already been announced and several big names being omitted, we put together a starting XI of players who missed out on the action.

Sven Ulreich (Germany)

The Bayern goalkeeper has enjoyed some very strong performances this season, making his omission from the Germany squad a little bizarre. The 29-year-old made one blinding error against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final but surely he deserves a spot in this squad.

Sergi Roberto (Spain)

Roberto has been a dominant fixture at right-back at Barcelona, yet couldn't quite get himself on the Spain team squad given their wealth of options for nearly all positions.

Aymeric Laporte (France)

With Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny out with injury, the Man City defender was almost certain of a spot in the squad but Didier Deschamps clearly thought differently.

Benedikt Howedes (Germany)

The Juve defender has suffered an injury-dogged season recently which goes some way to explaining why Germany boss Joachim Low left him out.

Alex Sandro (Brazil)

The 27-year-old lost out to Marcelo, given the duo's similar playing styles. Evidently Tite opted to pick the Real Madrid star over Juve's Sandro.

Kingsley Coman (France)

The midfielder recovered from injury with little time to spare before the tournament, and missed out on Deschamps' squad.

Adrien Rabiot (France)

The 23-year-old was dumped in favour of Kante, Matuidi and Pogba. There's always the World Cup 2022 for the PSG youngster.

Jack Wilshere (England)

The Arsenal midfielder struggles for consistency in form, which may well have contributed to Gareth Southgate's decision to deny him a spot on the plane.

Mario Gotze (Germany)

The former World Cup winner has been replaced by Timo Werner, after having scored the decider against Argentina in 2014 but has had a very mixed season with Borussia Dortmund this year.

Mauro Icardi (Argentina)

Argentina have no shortage of attacking power, but Inter forward Icardi was a surprise exclusion from a squad featuring the likes of Messi, Dybala and Aguero.

Alvaro Morata (Spain)

Another big name to have been omitted, although after a sub-par season with Chelsea, Lopetegui clearly favoured Diego Costa, Iago Aspas, Rodrigo and Lucas Vazquez.