‘GIVE KIERAN MORE TIME’
Chelsea star Hudson-Odoi targeting a permanent spot among Southgate’s much-celebrated striking trio
vGroup I, Saturday, 2pm
JAMES FORREST insists that Kieran Tierney’s commitment to Scotland must not be questioned.
The Arsenal full-back has yet to feature in any of Steve Clarke’s squads and Gunners boss Unai Emery asked for the 22-year-old to be left out of the qualifiers with Cyprus on Saturday and Kazakhstan on Tuesday as medics manage his recovery from long-term injury. Celtic winger Forrest (left) said: “Kieran loves playing for Scotland but was out for a while and is just getting back in the fold. Scotland and Arsenal want what is best for him.”
Andy Robertson, Scott McTominay and Ryan Fraser have all pulled out injured.
CALLUM HUDSON-ODOI is determined to gatecrash Gareth Southgate’s attacking party.
Southgate has generally permed three from four when it comes to settling on his offensive options and his selection policy has paid dividends.
England are averaging 4.33 goals per game in qualifying for Euro 2020, easily the highest rate among the 55 nations taking part. At 3.75 per game, only Belgium come close.
Southgate normally relies on a combination of Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane along with either Jadon Sancho or Marcus Rashford.
Whatever trio he fields, Southgate believes he has one of the finest attacks in international football.
But with Sterling dropped and doubts emerging over Sancho’s form and fitness, Hudson-Odoi is sensing a chance to break up Southgate’s forward cabal.
He said: “That is a motivation for me, definitely. Jadon is still young but they’ve done exceptionally well for a number of years.
“So when people say they are the best front three, for me it’s a motivation because I want to be one of them as well.
“I want to be around it and have people say …
OK, there’s five of them now. I always try to push myself.”
After 2018-19 campaign marked by a contract
standoff, persistent links with a move to Bayern Munich and an injury that ended his season prematurely, Hudson-Odoi is certainly in a happier place right now.
And for that, a lot of the credit goes to Frank Lampard, who convinced the 19-year-old his future was with Chelsea.
So how many conversations with his new club manager did it take for him to be persuaded to sign a new contract?
“One! He believes in me, he wants me to play for him and he wants me to work hard,” explained Hudson-Odoi. “They were the things you want to hear from a manager, that he believes in you and has faith in you, that you can achieve a lot of stuff at the club.” Not that Lampard indulges the prodigiously talented youngster. Far from it. “He’s hard on me,” said Hudson-Odoi. “But it’s in a good way because he wants me to keep getting better.
“When the manager is telling me stuff, I always want to listen and improve my game because I’m not there yet.” And the teenager clearly relishes his time with both Lampard and Southgate, explaining: “I think they’re quite similar. The way they both play, they wanted to do the same methods.
“As a winger or an attacking midfielder, they want you to be in certain positions to receive the ball, they want you to get at the defenders one-onone and contribute as much to the team as possible. They have the same mentality.”
Clearly, both have a disciplinarian streak, judging by Southgate’s punishment of Sterling and Lampard’s bad behaviour tariff.
“It’s pretty strict,” said HudsonOdoi, referring to Frank’s fines. “But even if there weren’t fines, we would still be on point. We’re very positive about everything we do.”
With that, Hudson-Odoi’s mobile phone rings. That’s a grand, Callum. He laughs. in fact, right now, you can’t keep the grin off his face.
England to win 4-0