Saints England hopeful's will be awaiting Roy Hodgson's squad announcement on Thursday with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.

Roy Hodgson announces his squad for the first of England's pre World Cup friendlies on Thursday and there will be four Saints players hoping to be in line to face Denmark at Wembley next week.

First of those four and perhaps the most certain to be in the squad will be Adam Lallana, he impressed in the last games and since then has been in sparkling form for Saints including several watched by the England boss or his assistant.

Jay Rodriguez will be more worried, he was not so impressive on his debut, however Hodgson spoke highly of him after that game and he like Lallana has also been impressive in the Premier League including a great solo goal against Fulham in front of the watching Hodgson.

Rickie Lambert will be sweating a little as well, at the tail end of 2013 he looked certain to go to Brazil after a run of England cap's and goals, but his form in the Premier League has not been so good and goals not as plentiful as in the past, he will face competition from Andy Carroll and it will be interesting to see if this squad includes Carroll, the West Ham man spent the first half of the season out with injury and then after a handful of games on his return without scoring or impressing had to sit out a three game ban, put simply for Hodgson to put him in this squad would be a gamble and a worrying sign for Lambert.

Whatever he does in this squad though, the last 11 games of the premier League season will be crucial for both Carroll and Lambert, put bluntly they both have to prove they are better than the other and the way of doing that is by scoring goals and creating them.

I pointed out that Lambert needed to be playing games and scoring for Saints if he was to get on the plane to Brazil, undoubtably the early part of the season saw his form suffer due to him having to play a hybrid role with Osvaldo at times, England do not want lambert as a midfield or wide player, they are looking at him as a lone striker impact option, he might not be playing that role for Saints at the moment, but he still now with Osvaldo out of the picture has the chance to impress the England boss, in recent weeks he has looked tired and jaded, now he truly has something to play for, Rickie out of the quartet of England hopefuls is the one who will probably not get another chance of a tournament for England, if he cant raise his game for the most crucial three months of his footballing career then when can he.

Luke Shaw has been linked in the press with a call up to the full squad this week and it is strange how the national media seem to be able to call issues like this accurately at times, you will often see stories about a call up in the press coming true days later, almost as if its leaked so it won't be a shock when it happens.

Shaw though is an outside bet for Brazil, however would not be surprised if Hodgson has a look at him and gives him experience in case anything happens to Leighton Baines or Ashley Cole in the build up to the final's

Photo: Action Images

JDawg added 12:07 - Feb 26 Why is no one talking about Cork for England? England's current batch of holding midfielders is pitiful and since Cork has come into the Saints team he has put in several man of match performances. Come on Hodgson, surely he is worth a look at in these friendlies? Or has it been decided Gerard will play that role now he is doing it at Liverpool?
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