England young guns going for glory – Southgate

ENGLAND’s 23-man squad is built to win now rather than building for the future, manager Gareth Southgate insists, despite picking his country’s third-youngest ever squad for a World Cup.

Veteran goalkeeper Joe Hart and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere were among the big names to miss out on Southgate’s squad, while 19-year-old uncapped Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was included.

“We are not picking young players because we are trying to buy ourselves time, we are picking young players because we believe they are the best,” Southgate said yesterday.

“Maybe it is brave to take players without the number of caps, but we have to give these guys belief.”

Former England striker Gary Lineker joined a host of pundits in calling on Southgate to write off any hopes of lifting the World Cup in Moscow on July 15 in favour of blooding youngsters.

However, Southgate said he had resisted the temptation to name an even younger squad by ruling out the likes of Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon and Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund to pick those that, on form, were best placed to succeed in Russia.

“I don’t think when you’re involved with England you can write any tournament off,” he said.

“We know teams that win tournaments normally have more caps than we do, have more appearances in semifinals and finals than we do.

“That’s where we want to head and that’s what Germany, Spain, Brazil and Argentina have done in junior and senior tournaments. – AFP