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It safe to say there were no real surprises coming from Gareth Southgate with the only exemption being Trent Alexander-Arnold, who will most likely make his debut in the warm-up games.
This World Cup will be an introduction for the Liverpool defender as a way to gain experience before becoming the countries number one right-back.
It easy to see that the England boss is looking towards the future as a number of these players having played under Southgate at Under 21 level with the likes of goalkeepers Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland, Man United’s Jesse Lingard, Ruben Loftus-Cheek after an impressive season for Crystal Palace, John Stones from Man City and one season wonder Harry Kane.
The England boss has spoken about his selection saying “I believe this is a squad which we can be excited about.
“It is a young group, but with some really important senior players so I feel the balance of the squad is good, both in terms of its experience, its character and also the positional balance” he added.
Finally, he stated “We have a lot of energy and athleticism in the team, but players that are equally comfortable in possession of the ball and I think people can see the style of play we’ve been looking to develop.
“The selection process has been over months really, it’s not just been the last few weeks. We feel the team are improving and we want to continue that momentum.”
Earlier in the week, we learned that the overrated Jack Wilshere and the experience and former England number one Joe Hart won’t be going to Russia. In Hart’s case has been nothing but utter bollocks and players like Loftus-Cheek have been better throughout the season then the Arsenal man.
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On Hart, Southgate revealed the reason for the omission “With Joe, we’ve got three other goalkeepers who have had very good seasons and the decision I was faced with was do I keep Joe in and have experience around the group? Or give the three guys who have basically had a better season a chance?”
Meanwhile, in the North East, I’m sure Newcastle fans are disappointed Jonjo Shelvey and Jamaal Lascelles won’t be on the plane. Additionally, I’m sure both players are said they won’t be going to the poison killing, state-run, homophobic country full of racist football hooligans instead of going to somewhere better like Vegas, Dubai or anywhere that’s better than Russia.
Who are we kidding ourselves, England will play a total of four World Cup matches and then come home. So here are the victims we are taking this summer:
Goalkeepers – Jack Butland (Stoke); Jordan Pickford (Everton); Nick Pope (Burnley).
Defenders – Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool); Gary Cahill (Chelsea); Fabian Delph (Manchester City); Phil Jones (Manchester United); Harry Maguire (Leicester City); Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur); John Stones (Manchester City); Kieran Tripper (Tottenham Hotspur); Kyle Walker (Manchester City); Ashley Young (Manchester United).
Midfielders – Dele Ali (Tottenham Hotspur); Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur); Jordan Henderson (Liverpool); Jesse Lingard (Manchester United); Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Crystal Palace/Chelsea).
Forwards – Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur); Marcus Rashford (Manchester United); Raheem Sterling (Manchester City); Jamie Vardy (Leicester City); Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).
Stand-by – Tom Heaton (Burnley); James Tarkowski (Burnley); Lewis Cook (Bournemouth); Jake Livermore (West Brom); Adam Lallana (Liverpool).
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Now the 23-man squad has been chosen, the next step for the England boss is to pick his captain, which Kane the likely one to wear the armband, and number one between Butland and Pickford.
One final thing the video The FA released to reveal the players was utterly awful!
One final thing the video The FA released to reveal the players was utterly awful!
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