If Southgate is still looking to finalise his World Cup squad

JAMAAL Lascelles and Harry Maguire went nose to nose during Newcastle United’s 2-1 win after the Leicester City man pushed his hand into the face of Dwight Gayle at the King Power Stadium. With the fan debate still raging on which players should be in Gareth Southgate’s final England squad, and on that plane to Russia, the clash between the Magpies and the Foxes offered a good opportunity to get a closer look at a handful of candidates for this year’s finals.

Maguire is strongly fancied to be in Southgate’s squad but he didn’t have a great day on Saturday as Jonjo Shelvey turned him inside out for the opener before he quickly became rattled and should have been sent off for his clear swipe at Gayle.

The 25-year-old ended up on the losing side but Lascelles went on to keep his cool after being booked for telling Maguire what he thought following his petulant act.

Southgate insists his scouts are still watching the action carefully between now and the end of the season, but while he said the door is still open, he also stated he wanted to name his squad early. He recently said: “I’d like to (name the squad before the next friendly) because you end up being able to run a performance camp rather than a selection camp. I think there’s a difference in the feel for everybody.

“If you name 28, they aren’t sure, but if you name 23 and five on standby – which Sven (Goran Eriksson) did well – then everyone knows where they sit.