GARETH OPENS HIS YOUTH CLUB
Boss gives debuts to talented trio as injury rules out the regulars
CLEARLY there are limits to how much Gareth Southgate trusts his players. Take the coffee shop at St George’s Park: chocolate coins and other such treats have been removed from sight for as long as members of the England squad are there.
Southgate, however, continues to show faith in his younger players on the pitch, judging by his plans for this evening’s showcase friendly against Germany.
The manager conceded yesterday that injuries to players of the stature of Harry Kane and Dele Alli have drastically affected his plans for both the game against the world champions and Tuesday’s clash with Brazil.
But rather than panic and call on Jack Wilshere, Daniel Sturridge and Jermain Defoe, Southgate has chosen to once again give youth a chance.
He is trying to come up with something different that lessens the likelihood of England stuffing up another major tournament. A new formation has been swiftly followed by the emergence of new faces, with Harry Winks, 21, providing Southgate with proof that it can pay to take a gamble.
This time he has turned to Ruben Loftus-Cheek, a 21-yearold product of the Chelsea youth system now impressing on loan at Crystal Palace. Roy Hodgson has asked the towering midfielder to play wide right recently but he has been Palace’s best player in a more central role this season and his combination of strength, athleticism and skill mark him out as an exciting prospect.
Earlier this week Loftus-Cheek likened himself to a young Michael Ballack and Southgate said yesterday he sees him in the middle. Ruud Gullit, a Dutchman who knows a thing or two about attacking midfield play, raved about Loftus-Cheek on the BBC recently.
‘I want him in the centre,’ said Gullit. ‘ Technical, strong, he is fantastic. He is the one who creates. He is a future England player. I really believe in this boy.’
So, seemingly, does Southgate. ‘He’s a player of great technique,’ he said. ‘ He’s a different sort of player, at his best in behind the opposition midfield, driving at defences. I think he’s a really exciting player.’
He is also someone Southgate worked with in his previous FA roles as technical director and Under 21 coach, and there is a theme developing. He knows these young players, knows what they are capable of, and clearly he wants to draw on their ability at a time when England’s junior teams are out-performing the seniors.
Joe Hart, Southgate insisted, would be his goalkeeper if the World Cup was starting tomorrow, but the selection of Jordan Pickford, 23, is another bold move. Just as calling members of the Under 20 side into training points to a desire to find new players when, as Southgate stressed, he is picking from just 70 players in the Premier League.
Last week Southgate made the point that he needed to practise what he preached: if he was to ask managers to gamble on young English players, he needed to provide them with a chance.
Tammy Abraham, 20, another Chelsea product who is on loan at Swansea, will also make his debut tonight, while the manager said he may call on Dominic Solanke, Dominic Calvert- Lewin and Demarai Gray for the Brazil game, after the Under 21s have played Ukraine today.
Injury has deprived him of those he would consider for the captain’s role but he will entrust Tottenham’s Eric Dier with the job. And he will urge John Stones to play with freedom and ambition.
Southgate said he was instru- mental in Stones’ transition from a silky right back for England’s Under 21s to centre half, even convincing the Everton coaching staff that here was a defender who could be brilliant in the middle.
‘I had some conversations with Roberto Martinez after that and thought he had everything to be a top centre back,’ said Southgate.
‘So when we would talk about our junior national teams and highlighting what the future might look like, players like Stones, like Dier — who can really use the ball from the back — they
are where we have to head and where the top teams are at.’
It is a pity that little more than a week after watching Kane, Alli and Winks excel for Spurs against Real Madrid, Southgate cannot field his best side. But he insisted the injuries were genuine and that he would never push his players until they ‘break’.
He preferred to focus on the positives, and on the players he does have when he also had to contend with Chelsea’s Danny Drinkwater declining a call-up.
‘It is an exciting period,’ he said. ‘ We have got young players coming in and younger players training with us. That is what this place should be about.’
Which, of course, is right. Yesterday, highlights of that Under 17 World Cup final were being played on a loop on the giant screens in the National Football Centre’s hotel reception area.
After the disappointments of recent years it is little wonder Southgate is looking more and more in that direction.