Gareth Southgate announced his England squad earlier today ahead of their Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine and friendly against Scotland. Levi Colwill and Eddie Nketiah are the only new faces to the squad whilst there are recalls for Fikayo Tomori, Ben Chilwell and Jude Bellingham.
I'm surprised that both Colwill and Nketiah have been called up because I wasn't expecting them to earn their first call ups this early into the season. But I do feel that they deserve their call ups as it could be good for their development as young players. Colwill had a decent loan spell at Brighton last season and impressed for the U21's during their triumphant Euro's campaign in the summer. He's since played every league game for Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino. Nketiah meanwhile has had a decent start to the season with Arsenal netting in two of their opening three games in the absence of Gabriel Jesus.
Fikayo Tomori deserves his recall because he's performed well for AC Milan over the last few seasons. He's also unlucky not to have received more call ups because of this and England's lack of depth at centre back. Many people feel that he should be called up more and hopefully he can cement his place in the squad in the lead up to the Euros.
Ben Chilwell deserves his recall because he's made a decent start to the season with Chelsea and he was probably expecting himself to be recalled as he's been called up in the past. He simply had to be called up because of Luke Shaw being unavailable through injury and England's lack of depth at left back.
Jude Bellingham was probably expecting his recall as he's a guaranteed starter. He was called up for the last round of internationals back in June, but he had to pull out due to injury. His inclusion will still go down as a recall though because of him missing the last international break.
In terms of the rest of the squad, I was very surprised to see both Kalvin Phillips and Harry Maguire included because they're yet to feature for their clubs this season. I can understand why Maguire in particular has been included as he's someone who Gareth Southgate trusts, but because of his lack of game time at United I'm still surprised to see him in the squad. I was also surprised to see Sam Johnstone included ahead of Nick Pope because I was very much expecting Nick Pope to be recalled to the squad. Johnstone was in the last squad as Pope was injured but I was still expecting Pope to return to the squad.
FULL ENGLAND SQUAD:
GOALKEEPERS: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace)
DEFENDERS: Kyle Walker (Man City), Kieron Trippier (Newcastle), Trent Alexander Arnold (Liverpool), Harry Maguire (Man United), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Lewis Dunk (Brighton), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea)
MIDFIELDERS:
Declan Rice (Arsenal), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jordan Henderson (Al-Ettifaq), Kalvin Phillips (Man City), Phil Foden (Man City), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Jack Grealish (Man City), James Maddison (Tottenham), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea)
FORWARDS:
Marcus Rashford (Man United), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Callum Wilson (Newcastle), Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal)
Comments