That's very selective. For example Rio was made captain in 2008 and Cole, Terry and Neville were all available and all four playing in a CL final.
Right, but they weren’t always in the England side and their replacements were dross.
Neville missed basically the entirety of the 07/08 season and was very much on the run to retirement after that. Glen Johnson was the best option for years, and he was only ever alright.
Rio pulled out of the 2010 World Cup squad, promoting Upson to starter and handing Michael Dawson a spot in the squad. Ashley Cole regularly had injury issues, and until Shaw came along we were plugging the gap with Bridge, Baines and Rose, with the likes of Martin Kelly and Stephen Warnock as back-up.
The midfield continued to rely on Lampard and Gerrard well into their 30s, with Barry the preferred foil. By 2016 we were desperately hoping Rooney could do a job there. I'm not sure Carrick would have improved matters too much.
We ended up taking Andy Carroll and Rickie Lambert to international tournaments (as well as resurrecting Heskey in 2010).
The side from the qualifying campaign for Euro 2008 right through to the 2014 World Cup was relying on the decreasing number of available players from the "golden generation" to carry them, and by 2016, Rooney was basically the last man standing.