It was noticeable that Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were included as “forwards” on Gareth Southgate’s 33-player provisional Euro squad list.
There is a clear group of seven central midfielders, then a longer list of 10 attacking options, of which the strikers are obvious. Foden and Grealish’s inclusion among them would suggest they are competing with the wingers: two key places are up for grabs, Southgate said, despite the previous dominance of Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford.
Such is the versatility of Foden and Grealish that they have been used in a variety of positions by Manchester City and Aston Villa. Both started predominantly as central players, either in the engine room or haunting defenders in the shadows behind a striker.
When calling up Grealish last August, Southgate said he regarded him more as a winger in a front three than the way he is used by Villa.
Equally, Pep Guardiola appeared more inclined to play Foden centrally before shifting his prodigy to the right of a front three. Who knows if he moulded him towards a similarly left-footed playmaker he managed at Barcelona, starting on the right but with the freedom to roam anywhere.
Either way, Foden has flourished in that position for City and in Southgate’s more recent starting line-ups.
“Pep still, more often than not, plays him from out wide, or as a 10 rather than an 8, so that’s interesting to observe from outside,” Southgate said.
Until Foden’s emergence as a forward and Grealish’s rise into England contention, Southgate had been leaning towards an obvious front trio of Sterling and Rashford either side of Harry Kane. Jadon Sancho, in recent times, had challenged Rashford’s position.
A fit captain, Kane, clearly plays central striker. Sterling, Rashford and Sancho are more natural out-and-out wingers, but is there not a case to be made for playing Foden and Grealish with Kane?
Now, there’s a reason I am not the England manager, but a Grealish-Kane-Foden combination is enough to get fans’ juices flowing.
Grealish is the extra hot chilli sauce on your kebab, the cayenne in your curry. Every mouthful you’re just waiting for that explosion. He is the player who, perhaps a touch hyperbolically, reminds pundits of Gazza, because anything can happen when he has the ball, and who doesn’t want anything to happen?
On the right, Foden. All the stars – a tournament seemingly too soon for Foden delayed by a year, his accelerated development, his increased strength and confidence – point to this unshakeable sense that Foden, who turns 21 this weekend, is about to tear up Euro 2020. If you want to rise to Messi levels, this is the stage on which to excel.
England’s provisional squad for Euro 2020
Goalkeepers:
- Dean Henderson (Manchester United)
- Sam Johnstone (West Brom)
- Jordan Pickford (Everton)
- Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United)
Defenders:
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
- Ben Chilwell (Chelsea)
- Conor Coady (Wolves)
- Ben Godfrey (Everton)
- Reece James (Chelsea)
- Harry Maguire (Manchester United)
- Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa)
- Luke Shaw (Manchester United)
- John Stones (Manchester City)
- Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid)
- Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
- Ben White (Brighton)
Midfielders:
- Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund)
- Jordan Henderson (Liverpool)
- Jesse Lingard (West Ham, on loan)
- Mason Mount (Chelsea)
- Kalvin Phillips (Leeds)
- Declan Rice (West Ham)
- James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)
Forwards:
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
- Phil Foden (Manchester City)
- Jack Grealish (Aston Villa)
- Mason Greenwood (Manchester United)
- Harry Kane (Tottenham)
- Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
- Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
- Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)
- Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
- Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
Imagine their passes, dinks and crosses probing those nooks and crannies in defences, catching up with Kane’s intelligent runs, finding him in those spaces, feeding one of the world’s best finishers.
Foden, let’s not forget, has scored 18 times in 55 games.
“What has impressed me the most has been the hunger for goals,” Southgate said. “He has real hunger in every training session to score goals. It is not only about creating. He’s got that real desire to score and that is a great attribute to have. He’s hugely exciting but he’s young and he’s still learning. He is a player that we have got to look after and make sure we give him the best chance to succeed.”
Grealish will require a bit more care and consideration. A recent injury has left him unable to play and train every day, and Southgate will assess his situation in the coming weeks. “We’ve got to be a little bit realistic how much we can push – we don’t want to break any of these players we’ve got to get them to the best level we can,” he said.
What of the others? How, you might argue, can you afford to leave out Sterling, Rashford or Sancho?
Sterling has been a strong performer for England but for City he has been in and out of form, and not played as much as he – or Southgate – would have liked. Rashford, too, can lack consistency and has struggled with injury. Sancho’s form for Borussia Dortmund has dipped.
“We’ve got a lot of competition for places in those areas of the pitch,” Southgate added. “We’ve an idea of where the players are. But there’s a couple more games to go and we then hope that a couple that maybe haven’t been firing as much can fire that in the next few weeks as well.”
As the situation heats up, could Foden, Grealish and Kane light up the tournament?
England’s Euro 2020 fixtures and dates
Warm-up fixtures:
- England vs Austria – Weds 2 June, 8pm (Riverside)
- England vs Romania – Sun 6 Jun, 5pm (Riverside)
Group stage:
- England vs Croatia – 13 June, 2pm (Wembley)
- England vs Scotland – 18 June, 8pm (Wembley)
- Czech Republic vs England – 22 June, 8pm (Wembley)
If England top Group D, they will play enter the knockout rounds in line with the following schedule:
- Round of 16: TBC – 29 June, 6pm
- Quarter-final: TBC – 3 July, 9pm
- Semi-final: TBC – 7 July, 9pm
- Final: TBC – 11 July, 9pm
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3fkp5DO
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