Chris Smalling's inability to play out from the back behind England exclusion, confirms Gareth Southgate

There will be no Smalling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Danny Sturridge for the games against Brazil and Germany

Jack Pitt-Brooke
Thursday 02 November 2017 18:25 GMT
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Gareth Southgates wants players who can play out from the back
Gareth Southgates wants players who can play out from the back

Gareth Southgate revealed that he has dropped Chris Smalling from the England squad because he is not good enough at playing out from the back. Southgate made the blunt assessment of the Manchester United man’s qualities at his squad announcement press conference at Wembley on Wednesday afternoon, as he justified cutting a host of senior players out of his squad.

There will be no Smalling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Danny Sturridge for the games against Brazil and Germany and nor has he found any place for Jack Wilshere, despite Arsene Wenger’s recommendation that he should be included. In their place was a trio of uncapped youngsters: Joe Gomez, Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Southgate explained his omissions of Smalling and Wilshere with surprising candour, saying very clearly why they had not been called up for these games. If they want to get into squad for the 2018 World Cup then they will have to impress during the March friendlies, or else they will have to wait until the very end of this season. It is hard to see how Smalling will get back into the England fold ahead of Russia after how Southgate explained his omission this afternoon, with Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Harry Maguire, Joe Gomez and John Stones selected ahead of him at centre-back.

“I have huge respect for Chris,” Southgate said. “He’s a player who’s obviously playing at a big club. We want to play a certain way. The players we’ve brought in we want to see using the ball from the back and building up in a certain way. That’s a style I want to have a look at. There are some young players for whom this is a good opportunity. I know what Chris can do. We’ve picked young defenders who haven’t got as many games under their belt so this is a great chance to look at them.”

Southgate was almost as blunt when discussing Wilshere, who has still only played 13 minutes of Premier League football this season, as he tries to prove himself to Wenger in the Europa League and Carabao Cup. Wenger, despite not picking Wilshere in the Premier League, still believes that he should be in the England set-up. “I personally think a super-fit Jack, I don’t know how you can keep him out of the England squad,” he said yesterday.

But Southgate does not see it like that. He said that until Wilshere starts playing more in the Premier League, he will not play for England, and he has told Wenger that.

Smalling will be absent for England's upcoming friendlies (Getty)

“I don’t know how you get in an England squad without getting in the Arsenal team,” Southgate said. “There’s no question in our mind about Jack Wilshere’s ability, his football brain and his personality. We just need to see him playing regular league football before we think it’s right to put him back in. With his unfortunate history of injuries, we want to make sure he’s robust enough before we bring him in. I did have a conversation with Arsene about him on Saturday because we think his ability is that of a top player but for him it’s just about game time.”

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