Gareth’s ready to ring the changes
GARETH SOUTHGATE is ready to make wholesale changes for England’s trip to Denmark after admitting his team are seriously short of match fitness.
Southgate said it will be important to “keep the balance” between experience and freshness as many of his England stars did not even start preseason training before joining up with England.
Three Lions boss Southgate hinted he might stick with captain Harry Kane despite his rustiness, but is set to experiment with a 3- 4- 3 formation as he considers using it for next summer’s European Championships.
That could mean chances for the likes of Conor Coady and Ainsley Maitland- Niles while there
will be reshuffles in other areas, with Nick Pope, Trent Alexander- Arnold, Mason Greenwood and Tyrone Mings hoping for a chance.
Aston Villa star Jack Grealish is also in the mix but he did miss two days of training last week with a niggling injury and he may come off the bench.
Southgate said: “I think the most important thing over the next few days will be to really assess what gives us the freshness but keeps enough experience, to keep the balance of the team right. Energy will be key.”
Southgate says he will assess the goalkeepers before Tuesday but also admitted he wants to experiment with a back three to give them more options.
He added: “We can’t just be rigid.
“We don’t want to just stick to one way of playing if we are knocking on the door and not really getting the number of shots on goal that we wanted, as was happening against Iceland.”