Foden at heart of exciting times

IF the Euros were to start tomorrow and I was England boss Gareth Southgate, I’d play Phil Foden in the middle of a midfield three with Declan Rice and Mason Mount either side of him.

Foden (left) can get forward and back, which is why I’d have him as the centre point of that triumvirate with Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish interchangeable either side of Harry Kane ahead of them.

I know plenty of you will think James Maddison should be in there somewhere and he’s a cracking player with the ball.

But Mount just gives us that little bit more overall and it can’t all be fanfare players, which is why I’d have a semigrafter in Rice in there, too.

However it plays out, it’s the most exciting midfield puzzle we have had since Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes under Sven Goran Eriksson.

GINI WIJNALDUM has sprung to the defence of Liverpool fall guy Alisson.

The Brazilian keeper (left) had a nightmare in the 4-1 defeat by Manchester City.

But Wijnaldum urged fans to “look at the other side” as the Dutch midfielder insisted: “He saved us so much.

“It will always happen that a goalkeeper makes a mistake. You just try to fix it during the game.

“We were more disappointed that we couldn’t change it around for him because if you look at since he was here how many times he saved us – he won trophies for us – it’s difficult that we couldn’t change it around for him.

“When you play football, you always know everyone can make a mistake.”

Jurgen Klopp must repair confidence for massive games in the next week at Leicester and against RB Leipzig in the Champions League. And Wijnaldum said: “We know it’s difficult this season, the situations we have to deal with.

“But we will not give up, we’ll continue what we are doing and try to win games.”