Alexander-Arnold and five others on Southgate’s s**tlist…
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been dropped by Gareth Southgate. He’s certainly not the first, but all is not lost…
Chris Smalling
As with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Southgate was honest with Smalling when the then-Manchester United defender was dumped in 2017. Perhaps a little too honest…
The England manager cited other defenders’ “use of the ball from the back” when justifying the omission. Which many observers agreed with, even if Southgate later apologised for his lack of tact.
“I probably regretted that,” said the manager a year ago. “By praising others for certain attributes, there was criticism for Chris. It was my fault and it was unfair on him.”
That was when Smalling was making a case for a recall with his form on loan at Roma, before Covid screwed everything. But he didn’t take kindly to Southgate’s reasoning at first.
“You don’t win every trophy bar the Champions League without being able to do everything a top defender needs to do. I don’t really feel like I need to prove anything to Gareth.”
Fair do’s.
Southgate: Alexander-Arnold not at the same level as previous years
Jesse Lingard
The West Ham loanee offers some hope to Alexander-Arnold. While the Liverpool defender processes his bewilderment, Lingard is looking forward to his first England camp since the Nations League finals in 2019.
The 28-year-old was binned by Southgate when his form went down the toilet for Manchester United last year and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer phased him out of the picture at Old Trafford. His loan spell at West Ham has reinvigorated his club career, and his international one too, even to Southgate’s surprise.
“I realistically did not think I would be sitting here today picking a squad with John Stones and Jesse Lingard in it,” the manager said yesterday. “Trent is closer to this squad than they were to our autumn squads four months ago.”
Lingard shouldn’t get too complacent, since Southgate admitted that he had little choice but to call him up: “Jesse, of the three, is a little more fortunate to be in. Luke Shaw and John Stones have performed over a period of time.
“We have got injuries in attacking areas that have opened up an opportunity for Jesse.”
James Maddison
One of the absences Lingard has benefited from is that of Maddison. The Leicester playmaker was omitted from Southgate’s squad – not for the first time – though the manager referenced the 24-year-old while listing the attackers he was unable to select.
It’s certainly not the first time Southgate has had to discuss Maddison. The former Norwich star has a single cap, which was a long, long time coming, after Southgate seemed to ignore the No.10 before eventually relenting.
Even then, Maddison was named in a couple of squads without being capped. Perhaps it might have been third time lucky had illness not caused him to drop out of a squad for Euro 2020 qualifiers in 2019. But Maddison did himself no favours by subsequently being seen in a Leicester casino while Southgate’s England were losing to Czech Republic.
Southgate didn’t hold a grudge, choosing him for the next squad, but his selection came with a warning: “It’s not a good situation for a player when we’re talking about him in Sofia, and talking about him here and he’s yet to get on the pitch for us, so that’s the challenge.
“You want to be high-performance, low-maintenance. I am prepared to work with players who are more difficult but you’re more likely to back those players if they’ve scored a winner for you and sweated blood for you, and that’s the bond you build with those players over a longer period of time.”
Maddison was subsequently capped at the end of 2019, when he scored on his debut. But he has since returned to the fringes, with Jack Grealish and Phil Foden better placed to make the European Championships.
Liverpool ‘shocked and bemused’ by Alexander-Arnold’s England snub
Jack Grealish
Like Maddison, Grealish had to wait for his opportunity. And wait. Then wait some more.
The Aston Villa star’s decision to swap allegiances from Republic of Ireland seemed a bad call when he was persistently overlooked by Southgate. The manager justified his stance last summer by pointing to his preferred system.
“He’s competing with Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling,” said Southgate. “I know Villa have played him as No. 8, I don’t see him in that role.
“He could be a No 10 but we haven’t played like that and some of those other players I’ve talked about would be very good No .10s as well.”
But Grealish’s form at the start of the current season made him impossible to ignore any longer. He was called up in September before being handed his first start during the following camp in October, when he was named man of the match in the win over Wales.
Grealish missed out on the upcoming squad due to injury but he seems a shoo-in to make European Championships cut.
Mediawatch: Southgate lynched for ‘bizarre’ and ‘callous’ TAA call
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Manchester United might have sifted through 804 right-backs before deciding Wan-Bissaka was the man for them, but it seems Southgate would prefer most of the 803 others.
Southgate actually called up Wan-Bissaka in August 2019 shortly after his move to Old Trafford, but the defender had to pull out of the squad through injury. Then, once it became clear that the full-back needs a map once he strays beyond the halfway line, Southgate has never considered Wan-Bissaka again.
The England boss explained his thinking back in November: “Aaron is a very good defender, one against one he’s probably as good as I have seen, but I have to look at the balance of the team and currently there are players ahead of him.”
Then, when discussing his right-back options after Alexander-Arnold’s omission, Southgate suggested Wan-Bissaka was now TENTH choice: “We’ve got others playing well in that position, Matty Cash at Aston Villa, Luke Ayling at Leeds. Two very good right-backs in the U21s…”
Has anyone got the number of the DR Congo FA?
