England’s craze for unnecessary drama and the cons within

England’s craze for unnecessary drama and the cons within

Bukayo Saka fires one in for his first-ever goal for the Three Lions in a friendly against Austria on Wednesday. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

When Gareth Southgate walked into the room on Monday to break the bad news to the players that won’t be making the trip to the Euro 2020 championship, he knew he had a difficult job on his hand but the insincerity that followed must have consequences.

Let’s be honest, friendlies are basically to size up your team and finetune tactics, what then was Southgate doing starting players he already dropped from the squad in the friendly against Austria?

Hypocrisy or cluelessness? You honestly don’t have to be an antagonist of Southgate for you to know what he did last night was wrong.

It makes no sense and can even ruin squad balance in that many players he’s supposed to hand the opportunity to claim a starting berth weren’t even involved.

Lack of grip and the balls to look straight into the eyes of James Ward Prowse and tell him “I’d rather overload the defense than require your set-piece strength.

Or tell Ollie Watkins and Patrick Bamford to wait for their turn, playing some of them against Austria did no favours to the Three Lions Euro ambition.

Make no mistake, England should go all the way and win this tournament, there’s a weakness of note in almost all the contenders.

Defensive numbers will hurt Belgium, France already looks boring and Germany needs time to rebuild, what will be Southgate’s excuse this term?