Five England players to discard after Euro 2024 failure features Man City liability and Southgate favourite
We have picked five England players we think Gareth Southgate – or his replacement – must discard moving forward after the Three Lions’ Euro 2024 heartbreak, with Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Kyle Walker being heavily criticised for their role in the Spain defeat.
Want to read about five players England must build around ahead of the 2026 World Cup? You can here. Only after consuming every word of this though.
Five England players to discard after Euro 2024 failure
Kyle Walker
Walker thought his England career was over in 2020 after seeing red in a Nations League game away to Iceland, giving a very honest and despondent post-match interview. Aged 30, Walker felt Kieran Trippier and a young Trent Alexander-Arnold breathing down his neck, saying: “Hopefully I will be back. I have to talk to the boss and see what he wants to do. I am more than happy to say I want to be around the team. I have missed it.”
He bounced back defiantly and returned to the starting XI after two matches as an integral right-sided centre-back, playing that role mainly against top opposition and reverting to right-back against those England were expected to beat.
Walker has been a stalwart of the England team under Gareth Southgate. He was winning every pot and pan imaginable for Manchester City and was extremely valuable for club and country, growing a reputation for being one of the best right-backs in the world and a nightmare for any left winger, from Kylian Mbappe to Vinicius Junior.
But something has been missing for the 34-year-old this year. Even for Manchester City he has been less convincing and his frailties were evident at Euro 2024. At 34, it is completely understandable that Walker would slow down but he literally hasn’t; he still has lightning recovery pace and remains fine one-on-one against a winger, rarely getting beat. But his overall defensive game seems to have dropped down a level…or five. And his final product – which has never been elite – has been abysmal of late.
Again, Walker’s age makes falling out of favour for England absolutely understandable, fair, and almost to be expected; that is what needs to happen moving forward. There is a perfect replacement in Trent Alexander-Arnold waiting and the Liverpool star should have been starting at right-back at the European Championship, if truth be told. He is apparently a defensive liability but there is no ‘apparently’ with Walker. He is. We just saw it. Several times.
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Harry Maguire
Maguire played no part in England’s European Championship campaign and is a player who will struggle to get back into the team given John Stones and Marc Guehi’s performances, with Levi Colwill waiting as an attractive left-footed option.
The defender has split opinions throughout his career and has clearly been affected at club level by the Manchester United captaincy and his £80m world-record price tag, but he has always been consistent and actually pretty brilliant for England.
A lot of people expected him to be a big miss for England at Euro 2024 but he was really not missed at all. That is a great sign that Southgate, or whoever replaces him, will be just fine without his big red comfort blanket. Guehi was brilliant in Germany, while Colwill has the potential to be even better than Stones and is left-footed, which is always a bonus.
Maguire’s England career has always juxtaposed Southgate’s, with both attracting criticism and being scapegoated for results without doing much wrong and even over-achieving. Both could be a thing of the past soon.
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Kieran Trippier
Southgate has always depended on Trippier and Trippier has always been there for Southgate, whenever and wherever he is needed. From right-back to left-back and a wing-back on both sides, the Newcastle United vice-captain brought England fans their greatest modern moment pre-Euros with that free-kick against Croatia in 2018.
Like Walker, there have been issues in his personal life that may have contributed towards a downturn in form, with an injury in the second half of 2023/24 not helping Trippier be at his best in Germany.
Southgate did not make a mistake taking Trippier to the Euros and did not make a mistake showing faith in Trippier with Luke Shaw injured, but bringing no direct replacement for the unfit Manchester United defender was a blatant error. When Trippier was struggling, which was a little too often, there was no natural substitute who could come on and help create balance and fluidity on the left. This hindered England but did not stop them from progressing. In fact, England lost the only game Trippier did not start.
Trippier is 34 in September and this feels like a natural end to his England career along with Walker, especially now even his trademark set-pieces are just trademark sh*te.
Lewis Dunk
It goes without saying really but we will say it anyway: 32-year-old Lewis Dunk should not have been in the England squad ahead of Jarrad Branthwaite and there is no clear path for him getting into the starting XI.
It really is that simple.
Conor Gallagher
If Southgate goes, likely so will Gallagher’s opportunities in the England midfield. What Gallagher holds over the other four here is youth and the potential to improve. He is only 24 years old and had an excellent season for Chelsea, so his inclusion in the England squad this summer was completely justifiable; his minutes in Germany were not.
The sight of Gallagher on the touchline ready to come on was met with collective groans across the country after two below-average cameos in the group stage, with his inevitable start against Denmark on matchday three driving fans up the wall and seeing the pressure on Southgate furiously grow. He lasted 45 minutes against Slovenia after making the starting XI and his replacement, Kobbie Mainoo, did enough off the bench to secure a starting berth moving forward.
The superior options in midfield mean Gallagher – based on current ability – does not have a place coming off the bench to cause chaos or attempt to solidify things for England, let alone start.
Again, we are not saying he is a poor player; Gallagher was great for Chelsea and selling him would be a mistake on the Blues’ part. But nor do we think he makes England a better team.
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