Former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham says England's squad should be selected on form.
He explained in the Independent: "The form players - the active players - are the ones who should be selected for England. I am talking about players like Charlie Austin of Queen's Park Rangers, who has scored six goals in 10 starts in the Premier League; Nathan Dyer, and Peter Crouch, who have had tremendous starts to the season, though have been out of the domestic picture recently.
"Crouch also happens to have scored 22 goals in 42 appearances for England. I also include Ryan Shawcross, who for some reason seems to have been blighted by what happened to him against Sweden in November 2012, when in fact almost any defender would have found Zlatan Ibrahimovic unplayable.
"How can Austin not be picked when Rickie Lambert - a player who is so clearly short of confidence - makes the squad? Lambert's selection stems from the fact that there are fashionable squads when England come calling. If Lambert were struggling to make the Southampton team, I don't believe he would be selected, but because he is at Liverpool he gets the nod. The same goes for Chris Smalling's selection ahead of Shawcross. Smalling has started four games for Manchester United and the club has not won one of them."
