Wilshere says Southgate has personal problem with Maddison
By Nathan Wong
The James Maddison bandwagon is gathering steam after England’s disastrous run of results. After not being picked by Gareth Southgate, the Leicester City star’s absence has been used to criticise Southgate after England scored just one goal in four games.
Ex-Arsenal and England star Jack Wilshere has become the latest high-profile name to come out and criticise the Three Lions boss for his bizarre selection choices. In a recent interview, Wilshere said that Maddison at the very least “deserved to be in the conversation”, highlighting his fantastic statistical performance this year.
With England failing to score an open play goal during this round of internationals, Wilshere’s opinion is gaining increased traction, with the solution for a lack of goal threat seemingly clear but ignored by Southgate time and time again.
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James Justin’s selection can be used also to emphasise the personal nature of Southgate’s rejection. With all respect to Justin, since his return from injury, he has not been up to England standard. Furthermore, his lack of fitness and form was apparent in his only 45 minutes of action. If anything, this choice showed Madders that his non-selection was not due to him being at City but for more personal reasons.
It is important to highlight that Maddison did not help himself with his ill-timed visit to a Casino after withdrawing from England action. Even so, this happened in 2019, and the Leicester City star has surely served any punishment based on his past attitude. Regardless, the attitude jibe is now surely outdated with Maddison displaying determination to put in consistently excellent performances.
It must be said that Maddison’s exclusion was the worst but not the only bizarre selection choice. Players such as Eric Dier were also extremely unfortunate to be overlooked as well as the odd choice of picking just one left-back in James Justin.
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If Southgate is to continue managing England, he must end his deluded obsession with right-backs as well as with certain players such as Kalvin Phillips and Mason Mount. Nevertheless, there are an increasing number of fans, myself included, who want Southgate ousted with immediate effect, for the benefit of LCFC players as well as England’s performances. Regardless of what Southgate thinks, it is clear that both Leicester City fans and Brendan Rodgers see Maddison as a crucial component of the side.