Southgate reveals why he snubbed Maddison after amazing form
Gareth Southgate came under fire once again for his exclusion of key Leicester City playmaker James Maddison. His reasoning better be good.
The Foxes’ star midfielder has been on-form in the second half of the league season. His exclusion from the England squad for the Nations League was a surprise to many supporters and others. There will always be controversy in squad selection though.
Leicester City’s talisman
Across the 21/22 season, Brendan Rodgers has relied on the midfielder to create most of our chances and score as many goals as possible. It was the one area the English maestro had to work on: numbers. The one area to get him into that elusive 27-man England team.
He achieved 53 total appearances, 18 goals, and 12 assists across all competitions. That is 30 goal contributions from midfield or right-wing as he has occasionally started. The gaffer has used the player all over the pitch, and it is odd to see these stats not rewarded.
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Southgate’s blunder
In a 27-man pool there was apparently no room for the creator. Leicester City may have had a poor season, but we still finished 8th and sill had great individual performances from ‘Madders’, Harvey Barnes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, etc.
Instead, the England manager called up the versatile James Justin and West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen, alongside the only recently selected Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori. These are justified selections. However, Conor Gallagher – who has been unimpressive in the second half of the season – over our No. 10 is a ‘criminal’ act.
According to the England coach, he does have his reasons for the exclusion. It would seem there are two prevailing reasons for not selecting Madders.
"“He’s finished the season very well; he’s obviously scoring goals. We just feel we are very happy with the players who have been with us in that area of the pitch… you have got to leave somebody out”"
Southgate details the strong crop of talent available in that area of the pitch. In the mid, Mason Mount, Jude Bellingham, Gallagher, and James Ward-Prowse offer considerable competition. On the wide areas, once again he would contend with Buyako Saka and Bowen.
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To be honest, I cannot argue with Saka and Bowen. I can argue with either the Southampton man or Crystal Palace loan star. Neither are better than the Foxes’ creator. Neither score more nor assist more. Moreover, we do not need a player just for set piece taking in the squad.