GARETH: IT’S NOT A FAB SQUAD
Boss admits injuries have taken a toll & there are one or two players who don’t warrant being included
GARETH SOUTHGATE has missed making the difficult phone call this week.
The one that crushes a player, the one with an awkward, disappointed silence at the other end, the one the England manager feels he has to make because someone has failed to make the cut.
Southgate did not have to pick up his mobile this time around because he clearly feels there is no one out there who can be aggrieved at being excluded from his latest squad.
In fact, he clearly feels there are some players in his 26-man party who can consider themselves LUCKY to be there.
Southgate said: “Am I entirely happy with the squad I’ve named? No, because we’ve got too many good players missing with injury.
“The consequence of that is you could well argue there are one or two in the squad who have not necessarily warranted it on their performances.
“The reality is I don’t want players to be comfortable. They need to think, ‘What’s the level needed at our club to get in the squad?’. Is everyone fulfilling that at the moment? Well, I’m not so sure they are.
“There have been a couple of easy decisions because I haven’t had to make calls this week. They are always difficult but I’d rather be making them.”
In a numerical sense, Southgate is right to say he has a lengthy injury list, but there are not many automatic names among the absentees.
And he is clearly worried not only about England’s lack of strength in depth but about the form of some of his stars.
He wouldn’t name names but Liverpool duo Daniel Sturridge and Alex OxladeChamberlain, for example, are hardly pulling up trees. The main problem, as it has
been for some time, is in midfield, the central area in particular. That is why Fabian Delph, who played as a left-back for Manchester City on Tuesday, has been handed a surprise recall. That is why Jack Wilshere could yet go to Russia, assuming England get the win required against Slovenia at Wembley, or in Lithuania, that will cement qualification. Southgate is clearly a fan of Wilshere’s, saying: “Jack’s very much still building up his minutes and his strength. I like him as a character.” There is no place in the squad for Jamie Vardy, who will play for Leicester at Bournemouth tomorrow but will then have a steroid injection in a bid to cure an ongoing, painful hip problem. But Dele Alli is included as FIFA have yet to announce whether he will serve a ban for his one-fingered gesture.