MX23RW : Wednesday, November 27 02:30:42| >> :600:386941:386941:

Gareth Southgate opens door for new faces in England Euros squad

The Three Lions boss has handed out eight debuts across the last two fixtures.

Gareth Southgate insists the door is still open for new players to force their way into his England squad for the European Championships next summer.

The Three Lions boss has handed out eight debuts across the last two fixtures as he continues to cast his eye over the talent at his disposal.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Bukayo Saka, Harvey Barnes and Reece James all picked up their first senior caps in Thursday's 3-0 friendly win over Wales.

That followed on from debuts for Conor Coady, Kalvin Phillips, Jack Grealish and Ainsley Maitland-Niles in last month's 0-0 Nations League draw in Denmark.

So, while Southgate admits he should be whittling down his options ahead of the rescheduled Euros next summer, he refused to rule out more players breaking through before then.

"I will never say never because young players these days emerge so quickly and can advance so quickly that they can really shoot themselves up the pecking order," he said.

"You would imagine we would like to be settled, but we are going to have three games next month and three in March which is going to be complicated as well.

"We feel like we want to narrow down the pool and at the moment we have got a very good idea of what the majority of the squad will look like but there are definitely places up for grabs.

"Somebody like Dominic Calvert-Lewin is showing a real strong case to force his way into our thinking more consistently and yet against Wales was the first time he has been on the pitch for us so that is a prime example of what is possible when form is good."

While England qualified for the Euro 2020 with a near-perfect record, Southgate admits there are certain tweaks that will be required when entering the finals themselves.

"We are absolutely looking at what is the best way of winning at tournament level," he added.

"I always remember when I played for Glenn Hoddle we talked about qualifying football and tournament football and they are different challenges and the types of game and standard of opposition is different.

"We recognised that ahead of Russia (the 2018 World Cup) and have felt the same for a reasonable while but there are certain players who are emerging who are helping us to really consolidate that thinking.

"It means in certain positions on the field there will be really, really intense competition for places but we need that.

"The players in the end are going to fight it out whereas a little bit in the 4-3-3 in two or three positions we are quite light of depth and if we have one injury or two injuries we are really short. Part of our thinking is in that depth of talent in all of the positions."

ID:417852: cacheID:417852:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:6828:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Ross McCrorie in action for Rangers in December 2017
Read Next:
Aberdeen's Ross McCrorie earns Scotland call-up for Nations League
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool1210112481631
2Manchester CityMan City127232217523
3Chelsea126422314922
4Arsenal126422112922
5Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton126422116522
6Tottenham HotspurSpurs1261527131419
7Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest125431513219
8Aston Villa125431919019
9Fulham125341717018
10Newcastle UnitedNewcastle125341313018
11Brentford125252222017
12Manchester UnitedMan Utd124441313016
13Bournemouth124351617-115
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham124351519-415
15Everton122551017-711
16Leicester CityLeicester122461523-810
17Wolverhampton WanderersWolves122372028-89
18Ipswich TownIpswich121651323-109
19Crystal Palace121561017-78
20Southampton121110924-154


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!