Gareth Southgate found himself a gambler, writes Janne Palomäki.
Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips visited the BBC podcast studio earlier this week.
The midfielder shared his news and spoke in such a confident tone about a possible World Cup debut that it is reasonable to assume that he received some signal from manager Gareth Southgate.
Phillips, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, already played in Wednesday’s league cup. On Thursday, his name was indeed found on Southgate’s list.
Even though his fitness is a mystery, Phillips’ selection cannot be considered a surprise. The same can be said about teammate Kyle Walker, whose recovery time from groin surgery is even shorter.
Instead, with James Maddison, Callum Wilson and maybe also Conor Gallagher, we can talk about a change in the manager’s thinking.
Maddison has only played under Southgate once. That also happened as a substitute in the European Championship qualifying win over Montenegro in November 2019. The Leicester star has been left out of the national team manager’s personal reach, but now public pressure brought him along.
Southgate fears failure in Qatar. That’s why he now listens to public speech with a more sensitive ear, because in this way he minimizes possible post-speculation in the event of a tournament exit.
The selection of Wilson after this current Premier League autumn does not represent a gamble. Southgate had to for him too, to swallow his pridehaving sidelined the Newcastle striker for over three years.
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Callum Wilson has scored six goals in the Premier League this season. PDO
The manager left Ivan Toney, Tammy Abraham and West Ham winger Jarrod Bowen on the beach. Wilson will probably also have to start on the bench. Harry Kane is the self-righteous number one, and Marcus Rashford’s experience in international matches will elevate him to the opener for the match against Iran on the 21st.
In defense, Southgate didn’t start to gloat. He has become known as the high priest of a sure-fire way of playing, and because of that, the inexperienced Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guéhi dropped out of the group.
Just blind faith in familiar warhorses explains Harry Maguire’s place on the Qatari plane.
England have an extremely strong name combination, but on the field its pieces have not fit together after a brilliantly run EC tournament. There, too, the place in the finals was mostly thanks to talented individuals.
The manager can be credited with a place in the semifinals of the World Cup in Russia. At that time, however, a clearly more limited team was used, and the chosen minimalist gameplay was certainly the best possible.
James Maddison rose from the sidelines to England’s World Cup squad. PDO
A full group of 26 players will go to Qatar. Southgate has complained that a bloated squad is difficult to manage, but still he didn’t have enough guts to pick a poor group.
Spanish colleague Luis Enrique will announce his own La Roja team on Friday. He really doesn’t feel any need to stamp all race passes.
The injury to Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell deprived Southgate of one reliable left-back. Fortunately for the manager, Luke Shaw has found the rhythm during the European Championships and will take over the wing.
When Reece James, who usually plays on the other side, is also watching the games from the couch at home while recovering, Southgate took his trusted gun-bearer Kieran Trippier with him.
The Newcastle pack can play on both flanks, and with Walker’s fitness an enigma, he is the heavy favorite to grab the starting spot against Iran.
It says something about Southgate’s appreciation that Trippier drives past Trent Alexander-Arnold. Liverpool’s star defender does not know how to defend, according to his national team manager.
Still, he made it to the World Cup team in Qatar.