By midnight on June 7 we will know which players have been cut from Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad for Euro 2024. He gave us 33 names knowing that only 26 will be allowed so the axe will be wielded after the England manager has assessed the impact and fitness of fringe players during the upcoming friendlies against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland.
On the face of it this is rather heartening. There are so many talented English players that Southgate barely knows what to do with them. There is a Bacchanalian feel to it all. Everywhere you look there is someone with skill and energy and either promise or experience. And even if England have let you down so often that you are fearful of hoping for glory, there are players among the 33 that will have you rubbing your hands in glee in spite of yourself.
What a fine time to be a Crystal Palace fan given that Dean Henderson, Eberechi Eze, Adam Wharton and Marc Guéhi were all named and Michael Olise would have joined them if the England admin team had been quicker to woo the midfielder from the clutches of France. Annoyingly, the captivating Olise will not be at the Euros at all as he was not picked by Didier Deschamps.
But then, Deschamps has taken a different route to that of Southgate altogether and not only dived straight in with his squad announcement, showing little interest in last-minute experimentation, but has also opted to take 25 players instead of 26. You have to pity French fans and the way they have been denied the hours of frenzied speculation that their English counterparts are engaged in as we try to second-guess the England manager.
If you stare at the 33 names it becomes rather dizzying but then, slowly, it dawns that Southgate has one main dilemma to resolve and that once he has solved it he can trim away with some sense of logic.
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England are blessed to have Declan Rice, a midfielder who has been blossoming on a weekly basis since leaving West Ham United for Arsenal. England can be built around him because not only can he effortlessly dominate the centre of the pitch, he can also advance with intelligence and purpose while being excellent at set-piece delivery. He oozes personality and the sense that any one of his team-mates could turn to him when in the midst of an existential crisis or simply cross about the shirt number they have been allocated.
Rice, then, is the player Southgate needs to be allowed to flourish, to be his best self, to be offered freedom which we know will not be squandered or abused. And that means Rice’s partner in central midfield has to be energetic, selfless and relentless. There is no need for a drumroll.
Conor Gallagher could have been built with just the European Championship in mind. He has spent a season with a club that struggled to find an identity and, in the end, gave Chelsea harmony where there had been dysfunction.
If anyone knows how to let the better midfielder shine then it is Gallagher. His partnership with Moisés Caicedo, who was weighed down by his £115million fee, has been a joy to witness unfold.
Slowly, the team that were mocked for spending too much too randomly began to find their way and when Caicedo scored from the halfway line on the last day of the season it was the neatest of punctuation marks. He was, at last, comfortable enough to advance, to see the goalkeeper off his line and shoot without fear of opprobrium. He had Gallagher to thank for giving him that space both mentally and physically. There is arguably no more willing midfielder in Europe given the manner in which the 24-year-old harries and scampers and buzzes so much it irritates all opponents.
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With such a balanced axis, Southgate can then play Jude Bellingham in the No 10 role which is where he shines for Real Madrid. This inevitably pushes Phil Foden out to the left where the only left-footed left back in the squad is Luke Shaw, who might not even be fit for the Euros. With Foden cutting inside, the left side of the team could find itself listing horribly.
Which brings us back to Crystal Palace. Perhaps Southgate felt he really had to stop picking players from the club he represented for seven years but Tyrick Mitchell, the left-footed full back, has grown in stature and reliability at Selhurst Park and really ought to be in the squad. It is a provisional squad full of flair, which is encouraging, even exciting, but Southgate might just have failed to think through to what the outcome might look like.
