Personally, I don’t think they deserved a place, Rashford especially but I do think he could have worded it slightly differently… though maybe they needed a kick.
That said, I’m happy if neither go to the World Cup (and Shaw)… nice break. Club > country (not that I’m English mind).
Southgate is soon going to realise that at international level unless you have a Midfield playmaker like Pirlo, Kimmich or Moderic then you need extreme pace or a Maverick with ridiculous creativity.
England did well in last two tournaments because he found all of that in Sterling, Kane, Grealish, Fodden, Sancho, Saka, Rashford, Mount, we had many saying We have 7 World class strikers when in reality we had one Harry Kane and one elite one, R sterling and a lot of very good emerging talents. Club England was great, Gareth got a lot right, but he got somethings wrong too! Playing in the Euros we had so called great defenders, Maguire was now a world class Libero, Stones class and unflustered , Shawberto and Kyle Walker , many peoples selection as the best defender in the tournament, then we had two dynamos in midfield with Rice and Phillips with the experienced Henderson and young maverick Bellingham as back ups.
England were a major force again, it didn’t matter about Gareth not being a great coach, we had great players.
However in Reality without Rashford pace when he’s on his A lgame , Luke Shaw or Ben Chillwell covering Maguire obvious deficiencies and some one in midfield who offers some much needed creativity like James Maddison or J Grealish playing in a position where international football is made for either of them to be the advanced no 8/10 alongside J Bellingham who plays as BTB 8 and Declan as a marauding 6, in a truly elite Midfield three, England are actually a very average counter attacking team with currently very little pace, we have a 33 year right footed left foot who was never the quickest, a Ferrari at right back that has to sweep up the two centre backs so can’t get forward and more horizontal passes in midfield that a Times crossword.
They are our best 3 midfield options with maybe Phil Fodden alternating with Grealish or Maddison dependent on form but none of these three can really play as inverted wingers/strikers cause none of them has any pace, play the two city boys both with Kane and you might have the slowest front 3 among the top 10 seeded teams in the World Cup. The question should be; Are England Fans now starting to feel like Man United Fans and was Gareth Southgate anymore qualified to manage England than Ole was to manage Man United?
Both our inverted strikers need to possess express pace because Kane drops so deep in so many games simply to push back the opponents defence. England played this way for a bit and did well but now Gareth is listening to everyone bar himself, sorry Gareth If Harry Maguire never let England down nor did Marcus Rashford with his goals and assists, Jack Grealish , a great mercurial talent but like Phil Fodden and to a lesser extent Jared Bowen who does have elite pace but no experience, none of the First two would beat Marcus or Raheem in a foot race and even if they had a 5yard head start, we destroyed Spain playing this way on the counter.
Who have England put to the sword in the last 12 months, no one, that’s why
People are quick to forget that Rashford who has 12 international goals and similar number of assists from 48 caps of which most have been from the bench has a goal involvement of nearly 1 in every 2 games at international level because his pace scares teams to death.
Now Gareth go crunch the numbers Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, B Saka, J Bowen(I do like this guy) , Teachers Pet - Mason Mount have a combined total of 11 goals and 9 assists from over 90 caps and a goal
Involvement combined of 1 in every 4.5 games, stats like these are never going to win you a tournament now are they ?
It’s not rocket science Gareth !
We need 4 elite level inverted strikers, all express, probably means R Sterling, Rashford, J Bowen who is elite pace, and Sancho or B Saka both quick enough, not Mount, Fodden, Grealish or Madison , pick the best 2 or 3 on form and play them as a number 10. Don’t take 4 right backs we need 2 left footed left backs and 2 right footed backs to overlap the inverted strikers, if the squads for the WC are increased to 26 you can take 3 right backs otherwise it’s just 2 not 4! Gareth stop making stupid mistakes !