Euro 2024 will be a tournament that defines Gareth Southgate… he MUST bring home something other than compliments, writes IAN LADYMAN
Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad for the finals of Euro 2024 is one so loaded with attacking talent and creativity, even the England manager himself may not have dreamed of it as recently as a year ago.
Phil Foden is the player of the year in the Premier League. Jude Bellingham may be a Champions League winner with Real Madrid a week on Saturday. Harry Kane has scored so many goals for Bayern Munich that he threatened to break all Bundesliga records. And then there are the newbies and the outliers.
Cole Palmer, the new darling of Chelsea. Anthony Gordon, transformed from a skittish winger at Everton to an international class forward by 18 months with Eddie Howe at Newcastle. All that before we talk about Ollie Watkins – all grown up with 19 Premier League goals for Aston Villa – and those we have long since known about, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jarrod Bowen.
No qualms, then, that Southgate thinks he can head to Germany in three weeks without players like Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling. Stalwarts and elite performers at international level – they have 37 England goals between them – both are now rendered surplus by their own modest form and the way a new and younger breed have flown by them on the outside.
For Rashford in particular not to be included in a squad of 33 that will be cut by seven once England have played warm up games against Bosnia and Iceland feels like a shock. But on form, rather than reputation, it isn’t. It’s the right call. All Southgate has to do now is arrive in Gelsenkirchen for his team’s opening game against Serbia on June 16 with his team in the right physical and mental shape to justify their status as one of the tournament favourites.
Gareth Southgate made some big calls in his provisional squad for the upcoming Euros
Jordan Henderson (left) and Marcus Rashford (right) are among the big-name absentees
England’s squad is loaded with attacking talent including Harry Kane (left), Jude Bellingham (second right) and Phil Foden (right) – while Declan Rice (second left) is essential in midfield
And this, in short, is where the questions start. Whoever makes the cut for the plane to their training camp in the eats of Germany, England will arrive with arguably the most fearsome attacking line up in the tournament. But Southgate’s squad is also riddle with defensive injuries to the extent he said today it’s the worst he’s ever known.
He may well not have a recognised left-back, given how gloomy the head coach was about Luke Shaw’s chances of recovering from injury in time.
Neither of his two favoured central defenders – Harry Maguire and John Stones – have been playing for their clubs while the understandable exclusion of Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips leaves Arsenal’s Declan Rice with a hell of a load to carry in front of the back four over the course of what we hope will be a seven-game tournament.
As he spoke this afternoon, it was almost possible to imagine Southgate trying to balance two sides of the equation out in his head. In the end, somebody just asked him. Can we win this thing or not?
‘Yeah, I mean, of course everybody’s waiting for that headline,’ Southgate smiled.
‘I’d be an idiot if I said: “No”. And equally, if I say “yes”, that doesn’t mean there’s not a hell of a lot of work ahead of us.
‘There’s no doubt what’s possible. The team have been very close already, so they know what’s possible.
‘They know what they’ve won at club level and what that’s taken. But then in knockout football we’ve seen in the Champions League that Arsenal and Man City were in the best three teams in the Champions League this year. Neither got to where they would have hoped to have got to.
There are a number of talented newbies with Cole Palmer (right) not long breaking into the squad
Southgate’s favoured centre-backs John Stones and Harry Maguire have not been playing for their clubs
‘It’s fine margins and so that is our world. You’re being judged and have to deliver on those moments. ‘But are we one of those teams that can win, of which there are a few? Yeah, absolutely we are.’
This will be without doubt a defining tournament for Southgate in terms of his reputation. It may well also be his last. He has taken England to the brink on two occasions. A World Cup semi-final in 2018 and a European Championship Final – lost to Italy on penalties – in 2021. He has previously acknowledged that this time he must bring home something other than compliments.
Southgate has been accused of favouritism in the past. Not today. Henderson, for example, was still in Southgate’s team last November and still in his squad as recently as March. Now his international career lies dormant and maybe even extinct.
He has chosen an inexperienced squad this time and there is an element of risk that comes with that. Nine players have gone from the group he took to the Qatar World Cup 18 months ago. Only 16 of this 33 have ten or more caps.
Kane is the squad’s top scorer with 62 goals. Beyond that, only Bukayo Saka is in double figures and he has eleven. Third highest scorer in this group? Maguire with seven.
‘We’ve never had so many injuries, said Southgate.
‘I would say we’ve never had so many unknown situations. There are some injury issues that are very obvious and apparent, and there are some that are a little bit more nuanced and that we don’t have all the information on.
‘Sometimes you need to work with the players and see how they react physically to training.
The left-back position is the biggest issue with Luke Shaw not playing since February
‘This has been as complicated a group as I can remember picking – and we’ve had quite a few complicated ones.’
As it stands, left-back Shaw is the biggest issue. The Manchester United defender has not played since the middle of February and Southgate is openly pessimistic.
‘I’d have to say he’s a long shot,’ he said.
Time will tell on that one but in the meantime Southgate will look to accentuate the positives.
Few teams should be as intriguing or hopefully as exciting to watch as England in Germany this summer. It’s been a while since we have said that. The problem of keeping the back door closed when they don’t have the ball is Southgate’s to solve.
