Southgate: Some players do not deserve to be in England squad
Manager says injuries have forced his hand Milner rebuffed plea to return to side last year
Gareth Southgate has admitted that there are players in his England squad who “do not deserve to be there”, with injuries having opened the door to some who have barely figured his season.
The England manager made his remarks after naming a 26-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Slovenia next Thursday, and Lithuania three days later, which included Fabian Delph and Jesse Lingard. Delph has played 20 minutes of Premier League football for Manchester City and, like Lingard, is yet to start a league game for his club – although Southgate did not specify to whom he was referring.
England will qualify for Russia 2018 if they beat Slovenia at Wembley, although Southgate estimated he had as many as 12 players missing through injury or lack of game time. The manager also revealed he tried unsuccessfully to talk James Milner out of international retirement when he took over the job one year ago. Southgate said: “It’s frustrating because the biggest story here is we’ve got about 12 players missing with injury. It’s incredible. I want competition for places and this time maybe we’ve not been able to achieve that.”
He named Danny Rose, Adam Lallana, Jamie Vardy, Danny Welbeck, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Barkley, Tom Heaton, Nathaniel Clyne and Danny Drinkwater among those unavailable with Jack Wilshere and Luke Shaw having had insufficient game time.
Southgate said: “I think the danger when you don’t have competition for places is
twofold.
What’s the level needed at our club to get in the squad? And is everyone fulfilling that at the moment? And then it’s, ‘We come into training, am I a shooin to get in the team or do I have to push a bit harder because
I have a couple snapping at my heels?’
“There’s a good challenge for those in next week because if they want to stay in, the level has to be in.”
There are doubts over the fitness of Phil
Jones and Michael Keane, both named in Southgate’s squad. He said he called upon Milner when he was short on fullbacks but the Liverpool man declined to go back on his decision. Vardy is expected to play for Leicester City tomorrow against Bournemouth but will be given the week off by the Football Association to recover from a steroid injection in his hip to treat a long-standing problem. Defending his decision to pick Delph, Southgate said he had been impressed with the player’s “character around the group”. Meanwhile, Southgate has supported the Football Association technical director Dan Ashworth over criticism of his role into the first investigation into Mark Sampson, the England Women’s manager who was sacked over inappropriate relationships with players earlier in his career.
“Dan would always want to work ethically in the right way,” said Southgate. Mo Marley, the former Everton Ladies coach, is expected to replace Sampson in a caretaker role.