In the first of our Dream XI series, we asked Rotherham United’s manager, Adam Rawlings to pick the ultimate eleven he would dream of managing.
GK: Petr Cech
Adam kicks off his team with the first of, it’s fair to say, a few Chelsea players… The former Czech goalkeeper who made over 400 appearances for Chelsea lines up between the sticks.
CB: John Terry
Chelsea and England legend, John Terry is the first to be trusted in Adam’s backline. The former Chelsea centre back racked up the most Premier League clean sheets by a defender, with 214 clean sheets in 492 appearances for Chelsea.
CB: Leah Williamson OBE
Lioness and Arsenal star, Leah Williamson lines up in the middle of Adam’s defence. As the first England captain to lift the Euro’s and first England Women’s captain to lift a major international trophy, Leah is trusted in guarding Adam’s goal.
CB: Virgil Van Dijk
Liverpool’s title winning defender Virgil Van Dijk rounds off the central defenders. Having gone 64 Premier League games unbeaten at Anfield from his debut in 2018 until January 2021, Van Dijk is a manager’s dream.
LWB: Ashley Cole
Having won the FA Cup a record 7 times and dubbed the “King of the FA Cup” with Arsenal and Chelsea, Ashley Cole lines up on the left of Adam’s defensive line.
RWB: Reece James
Continuing the Chelsea theme, Adam went for the youngest Chelsea player to captain the team in a Champions League knockout game in Reece James on the right of his defence.
CM: Frank Lampard
To kick off his midfield, Adam has gone for goals in picking the midfield with the most goals in Premier League History in Frank Lampard. The Englishman scored 177 goals during his time in the Premier League.
CM Michael Ballack
To compliment Lampard, Adam picked his favourite player of all time Michael Ballack. Ballack is the only player to finish runner-up in four major competitions in one season (2001–02) — Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, Champions League, and World Cup.
LW: Eden Hazard
Adam kicks off his frontline with former Chelsea and Belgium star Eden Hazard. Hazard completed the most dribbles in a single Premier League season since Opta began tracking (2014/15) as he made 138 successful dribbles.
ST: Alessia Russo
Arsenal striker Alessia Russo is chosen to lead the line for Adam. Russo set the record for the fastest hat-trick in England women’s football history in November 2021, when scored a hat-trick in just 11 minutes during a 20–0 victory over Latvia.
RW: Mo Salah
Adam in some ways rounds out his team in a Chelsea theme with Egyptian star Mo Salah. While he may not have made the impact he would have liked at Chelsea, at Liverpool he became the fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals for the club, taking just 151 games to hit the milestone.
Adam joined us for Episode 1 of the SYWF Podcast, where he discussed his own journey in the sport, the future of Rotherham United, and potential plans for the club to move into the New York Stadium. You can check it out on Spotify and YouTube now.
