Southgate’s seeking squad full of leaders

England manager Gareth Southgate is attempting to build a squad of leaders ahead of the World Cup and that may lead to another new captain for tomorrow night’s Wembley friendly against Brazil.

Southgate initially kept faith with Wayne Rooney following the sudden departure of Sam Allardyce. However, Rooney quickly became a peripheral figure for the national team and Southgate opted to share the armband among his squad to cultivate leadership qualities.

Jordan Henderson, Joe Hart, Gary Cahill and Harry Kane have all skippered their country in that period, with Eric Dier becoming the sixth different player to lead the team out under Southgate in Friday’s encouraging 0-0 draw with Germany.

Dier, at 23, became the fifthyoungest post-war England captain and Southgate could change skipper again in the team’s final match of 2017. “I will have a think about Tuesday,” the England manager said.

“The key was to build a group of people who are happy leading and can take more responsibility.

“Eric is another one who has great maturity and tactical understanding of the game and can show a bit more authority at times and have a bigger impact on others.

“Part of the reason was to say ‘come on, you can be a leader within this group’ and hopefully he will grow from the experience as well.”

There are some regulars who could wear the armband for the first time tomorrow, along with those pushing to fulfil the role again.

Southgate has kept faith with the same captain for both fixtures in the past three international meet-ups, but these friendlies offer the chance to experiment – something he did when handing five players their senior debuts on Friday.

There are now three even newer kids on the block after Dominic Solanke, Lewis Cook and Angus Gunn were brought up from the Under-21 squad.