GARETH SOUTHGATE has named his 27-man England squad for the FOUR upcoming Nations League matches.
The Three Lions boss sprung a few surprises as he prepares to give some fringe players a shot and resting some big-name players – no doubt with one eye on the 2022 World Cup this winter.
Of course, Southgate wants to win the Nations League. Success breeds success after all.
But after reaching the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, the boss is going all in to finally end 56 years of hurt in Qatar.
Not only will Southgate have to deal with the pressure of picking the best of a talented group of players, but he can only name 23 for the tournament in the Middle East.
That means some players will be left to watch from the comfort of their sofa.
Incredibly, a squad of players NOT going to this winter’s tournament would have a decent shot of at least reaching the knockout stages.
SunSport has picked its likely 23-man squad for the 2022 World Cup – and TWO XIs of stars set to miss out.
England’s likely 2022 World Cup squad
Goalkeepers – Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Aaron Ramsdale.
Defenders – Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Conor Coady, Ben White, Ben Chilwell, Luke Shaw.
Midfielders – Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips, Jude Bellingham, James Ward-Prowse, Mason Mount.
Forwards – Harry Kane, Tammy Abraham, Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden.
Southgate’s outrageous abundance of right-back options means there’s no room for Kyle Walker-Peters or Tariq Lamptey – with the latter pulling out of England Under-21s duty as he mulls over an offer to switch allegiance to Ghana.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and James Justin – named in Southgate’s latest squad – don’t even get a look in in the two reserve XIs.
Kieran Trippier looks likely to miss out on the World Cup thanks to the hot form of Alexander-Arnold, James and Walker.
He joins Tyrick Mitchell in the ever-growing list of full-backs not making the plane to Qatar.
Eric Dier was unlucky to miss out on the current Three Lions squad after his tremendous season for Tottenham.
He’s likely to join Fikayo Tomori, Joe Gomez, Marc Guehi and Ben Godfrey in missing the cut for the World Cup.
In midfield, experienced Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson could miss out on the tournament thanks to the recent influx of supremely-talented youngsters in the squad.
Conor Gallagher and Emile Smith Rowe are also tipped to receive the dreaded rejection text from Southgate, along with Jesse Lingard and James Maddison.
In attack, Manchester United stars Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford face a fight to reclaim their England spots after a poor 2021-22 season.
Jarrod Bowen also seems like he’ll be unfortunate, joining Harvey Barnes in the best of the rest wingers – beaten to the squad by the likes of Saka, Foden, Grealish and Sterling.
Callum Wilson, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ollie Watkins are also expected to miss out with Harry Kane the first name in the squad and Tammy Abraham’s hot form impossible to ignore.
