Gareth Southgate has recently named his England squad for the upcoming international break and several big-name players will be missing for the two matches.
The first big omissions were Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho and this major call from the England boss is a clear indictment of how poorly Manchester United have been playing this season.
Jadon Sancho’s performances have improved in recent months but according to Southgate, the winger is still not ready to be welcomed back to the Three Lions squad.
“The other attacking players in the squad are slightly ahead of him at the moment,” Southgate said on Jadon Sancho.
Rahsford’s omission though is justified because the United academy graduate has been really poor this season and all of a sudden it looks like the winger has lost all of his confidence and flair.
“He’s clearly not at his best, but there’s plenty of time,” the England boss said.
The forward has been struggling to get game time for Manchester United as Ralf Rangnick seems to have put his faith on young Anthony Elanga rather than Rashford.
Both Rashford and Sancho have been dropped from the England squad 👀 pic.twitter.com/n758t9dZ9a
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) March 17, 2022
Jarrod Bowen is the other major absentee because he has been in stellar form for West Ham United but he picked up an untimely injury which is why he will not feature for England in the next two matches.
“You need people to stand up and Jarrod has been the one standing up and getting goals,” his club manager had recently said. “His performance levels improve every time, he is maturing and looking really calm at the moment.”
Bowen has netted eight and assisted another eight goals in the Premier League this season so it’s massively unfortunate that the 25-year-old will miss out.
Gareth Southgate chose to call up Trent Alexander-Arnold and Reece James ahead of Manchester City’s Kyle Walker but the Liverpool right-back has picked up a hamstring injury and he is expected to be out for several weeks.
“Trent is out with a hamstring [injury] so he will not be part of as England as well,” Klopp told the press. “Not good news, we will see how long that takes.”
Now, it remains to be seen if Kyle Walker is called up for the England squad or not.
Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale is another unfortunate player who is going to miss the Switzerland and Ivory Coast games after picking up a hip injury.
🚨 Aaron Ramsdale will miss Arsenal’s match against Villa today, after sustaining a hip injury during the 1st half vs Liverpool.
Player hoped to play but medical advice prohibited. Likely to miss #ENG camp to recover. Leno comes in. #AFC@TheAthleticUKhttps://t.co/aLIP9wkKcN
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) March 19, 2022
Ramsdale looked all set to claim the No 1 spot during this break but since is out for a few weeks, Jordan Pickford will remain as the first-choice keeper.
England take on Switzerland on Saturday 26 March and then they face Ivory Coast on Tuesday 29 March – both at the Wembley Stadium.
