Leicester City duo named in England’s World Cup squad

Leicester City duo Harry Maguire and Jamie Vardy have been named in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup.

The Sheffield pair has been monumental in Leicester’s 2017/18 campaign, with Vardy bagging 23 goals, and Maguire helping out what has generally been a leaky defence.

As they now fly to Russia aiming to do the unexpected, Harry Maguire and Jamie Vardy should almost certainly be in Southgate’s plans.

While the 31-year old forward has shown that he can emulate his Leicester City goalscoring exploits on the biggest stage against the best teams (five of his seven goals have come against teams ranked in the top 15), Maguire has proven that there’s no English centre-back better than him.

If given the chance by Gareth Southgate the Foxes’ star duo does have the calibre to have a telling impact on England’s summer in Russia.

That’s true, however, of a lot of other players in the 23-man list, according to the boss himself, as he believes it’s an exciting squad full of energy.

"“I believe this is a squad which we can be excited about,“ Southgate said.“It is a young group, but with some really important senior players so I feel the balance of the squad is good, both in terms of its experience, its character and also the positional balance.“We have a lot of energy and athleticism in the team, but players that are equally comfortable in possession of the ball and I think people can see the style of play we’ve been looking to develop.“The selection process has been over months really, it’s not just been the last few weeks. We feel the team are improving and we want to continue that momentum.“The first call up for Trent Alexander-Arnold is well deserved. When we pick young players, it’s not just because they are young, it’s because their performances deserve it.“We’ve also had a couple of injuries with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joe Gomez, which is a huge blow for them personally and disappointing for us.”"

Here’s the England squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley), Jack Butland (Stoke City).

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Manchester City), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Harry Maguire (Leicester City), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham Hotspur), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ashley Young (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Crystal Palace).

Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

Next: Leicester City line up £15 million move for Manchester City’s Patrick Roberts

Stand-by: Tom Heaton (Burnley), James Tarkowski (Burnley), Lewis Cook (AFC Bournemouth), Jake Livemore (West Bromwich Albion), Adam Lallana (Liverpool).