England pick young squad
England omitted Joe Hart and Jack Wilshere from its World Cup squad yesterday and called up Trent Alexander-Arnold to cap a remarkable breakthrough season for the 19-year-old right back.
England coach Gareth Southgate stuck to his principles and selected a young, energetic and flexible group of 23 players who can fit a variety of formations but will be short of experience at major tournaments.
Hart was England’s firstchoice goalkeeper at the last World Cup and the two most recent European Championships, and was Southgate’s No 1 only five months ago.
However, he has fallen behind Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and Nick Pope after making errors and losing his place during a loan spell at West Ham from Manchester City.
‘‘We’ve got three other goal- keepers who have had very good seasons and the decision I was faced with was, ‘Do I keep Joe in and have experience around the group or give the three guys who have basically had a better season a chance?"’ Southgate said.
Wilshere last played for England in one of the country’s most humiliating matches, the 2-1 loss to Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016, and has had another injury- filled season at Arsenal in the Premier League.
Alexander-Arnold made his senior debut for Liverpool only 17 months ago. Now, he is preparing to mark Cristiano Ronaldo in next week’s Champions League final against Real Madrid and will then head to the World Cup in Russia.
England are in group G with Belgium, Panama and Tunisia.