Gomez, Grealish and Rashford can help fill England’s ‘spinal gap’

THE biggest question posed for Gareth Southgate over the past week or so surrounds the spine of his England team.

Namely, is it as strong, or are its constituent parts as strong, as we’d like to believe?

I still have question marks over Jordan Pickford and I’d like to see more pressure put on him from England’s other goalkeepers.

Because if Alisson and Ederson are the trophywinning benchmarks at the moment then, in terms of winning World Cups and European Championships, the Everton man comes up a little short.

John Stones in central defence made two dreadful errors in the semi-final against Holland.

And if Joe Gomez does well in pre-season, or early next season, then

I’d love to see the Liverpool youngster get a chance alongside Harry Maguire in the Euro qualifiers against Bulgaria and Kosovo in September.

The great thing about Gomez (right) is that he can play at fullback or centrally. And if he gets to play alongside Virgil van Dijk for the Reds then we can guarantee that, sooner rather than later, he’ll be pushing Stones for his place.

Gomez perhaps isn’t the footballing centre-half that Stones is, but you know he’s not going to be trying Cruyff turns in his own box. He’s a good, solid, mobile, footballing defender, who would work well alongside Maguire.

I was out in Portugal for the game against the Dutch and plenty of England fans said the same thing, ‘Oh, for a creative midfielder’. We’ve plenty of options in central midfield with Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier, Declan Rice – who can also play in central defence – Ross Barkley and Dele Alli.

But we still don’t have someone who can open up the best teams in the international game.

So I’m going to stick Jack Grealish (left) into the mix now he’s back in the Premier League, because here’s a man who gets the ball, drifts past people and plays little passes with the outside of the foot that can bamboozle opponents. A lot will depend on how Aston Villa take to top-flight football again – you only have to look at the way Fulham’s struggles impacted on Ryan Sessegnon to know that. But if Villa do well then he could be given an opportunity, because he’s one of those players who will identify little pockets around the pitch and exploit them.

With Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane in front of him, the prospect of Grealish could be very exciting for England. Kane is the other one, because he has played a lot of football in the last three or four years, and each season he has picked up an injury which has meant him missing a good chunk of matches.

I don’t want to be going into the Euro warm-up games next summer and having to get the prayer mats out over his fitness, so I’d like to see an out-and-out central striker putting him under major pressure for his place. Marcus Rashford (left), ideally, and if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decides the time is right to give him his head, as he presses reset at Manchester United, then that could be to England’s great benefit.