England schedule

Croatia (a) Nations League

Spain (a) Nations League

United States (h) friendly

Croatia (h) Nations League not playing. I think they will this month. The League Cup, Europa League or Champions League football will start to kick in and the biggest clubs will start to rotate more.

“The problem we are faced with is, do we pick lesser players who are up to speed or do we pick who we believe are the best players and accept that for some of the younger ones in particular they might have not had as much game-time? We have to assess that each time.”

Loftus-cheek is hoping he will be given his first Chelsea start in the coming weeks, having admitted that he suffered in an England shirt against Switzerland because of his lack of game-time.

“I’m not sure when I am going to play,” said Loftus-cheek. “It is just down to me working hard in training. There are a lot of games coming up so I think there will be more opportunities coming for players who are not playing every week. We have to be ready and do our best.”

Loftus-cheek spent last season on loan at Crystal Palace, but Chelsea wanted to keep him at the club for at least the first half of the this term. Asked if he could return to Palace in January, 22-year-old Loftus-cheek said: “Possibly, but it is still far away. There are still a lot of games to play and I just have to see what happens.”

Southgate will spend the next month studying whether his players have made enough appearances to warrant selection in his next squad, but insisted he was not angry with club managers who flood their teams with foreigners.

“The landscape is what it is,” said Southgate. “I understand the difficulties that club managers have.

“I was at Man City-huddersfield and you think, ‘Well OK, it is a game where [Phil] Foden will play’. But, actually, if I am Pep [Guardiola] I have senior players who I have to get up to speed because they haven’t had many minutes. I understand how complicated that is.”