Swango1980
Well-known member
Has Pickford not done well at club level to continue to be selected? I'm sure Southgate, or any manager, have lots of criteria when selecting the squad. Not just how well each player has done between international windows. I'm sure managers get a good idea on what players are like in the dressing room, and whether they are a good or bad influence. They'll also want to show some sort of loyalty towards many players, or should I say trust. In that sense, the players are likely to perform better knowing the manager has faith in them. I'm sure it would be extremely destabilising if a manager just picked players purely based on form, and thus had many player changes each time England met up. If Kane went through a bad patch of a month or 2, the manager would have to drop him simply based on form, whilst they might then feel obliged to pick Welbeck because he had a purple patch.Dier has been excellent this season. The few games he missed, we struggled because he organises our defence in a way nobody else does. i.e. Romero and Davies also played better when Dier was in. I would even argue that Dier should be in ahead of Coady let alone Maguire.
I hate these arguments that 'so-and-so has never let England down' - you hear the same from Pickford's defenders. The fact is players should be chosen on form and recent ability, and that all comes from their club games. I would also argue that 95% of international games are against worse teams that a typical Premier League game. It's easier for Pickford or Maguire to look solid in and England shirt if they only face four attacks from third division standard players. That shouldn't preclude us from wanting our team to be the best it can be.