Gareth Southgate announced his England squad earlier today ahead of their Nations League games against Hungary, Germany and Italy at the beginning of June. Jarrod Bowen and James Justin and the only new faces to the squad whilst there are recalls for Kyle Walker, Kieron Tripper, Fikayo Tomori and Kalvin Phillips.
Jarrod Bowen definitely deserves his call up because he's just had a brilliant season with West Ham having recorded 12 goals and 10 assists. His call up was expected based on the form he's been in this season. I'm surprised that James Justin has been called up because I wasn't expecting him to. He has been decent for Leicester since his return from injury but I still wasn't expecting him to be called up. But I can see why he was as Luke Shaw is out injured.
I was surprised to see both Kyle Walker and Kieron Trippier recalled as they both just came back from respective injuries. I didn't expect Fikayo Tomori to get recalled as England have enough options in his position. But after a solid season at AC Milan in helping them win Serie A, I feel that he deserves it. I wasn't sure whether Kalvin Phillips was going to get called up as Leeds had a difficult end to the season. But at the same time I can see why Southgate brought him back into the fold because he's been an important player for England since he was first called up.
In terms of the rest of the squad, I was very surprised to see Jordan Henderson left out because he's had a good season at Liverpool and was someone I was fully expecting to see in that squad. But after reading Southgate's comments about his omission, I can sort of understand why he's not been called up. Bukayo Saka, Trent Alexander Arnold and Aaron Ramsdale were probably expected to be return after missing the last round of games through injury and illness respectively.
FULL ENGLAND SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), Nick Pope (Burnley)
DEFENDERS: Kyle Walker (Man City), Trent Alexander Arnold (Liverpool), Reece James (Chelsea), Kieron Trippier (Newcastle), James Justin (Leicester), John Stones (Man City), Harry Maguire (Man United), Conor Coady (Wolves), Ben White (Arsenal), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace)
MIDFIELDERS: Declan Rice (West Ham), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), James Ward Prowse (Southampton), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Connor Gallagher (Crystal Palace), Phil Foden (Man City), Jack Grealish (Man City), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
FORWARDS: Raheem Sterling (Man City), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Tammy Abraham (Roma)
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