England host Germany at Wembley tomorrow night – and we’ve had a go at predicting how Gareth Southgate could lineup for the contest.
Though hopes were high heading into Euro 2020, England’s uninspiring performances across their three group games left fans thinking that football wasn’t coming home after all.
However, an opportunity has presented itself for Gareth Southgate’s men. He himself won’t be keen to entertain it, but should England beat Germany, the route to the final is pretty straightforward.
With the Netherlands having been knocked out of the tournament by the Czech Republic last night, the victor at Wembley will face either Sweden or Ukraine, followed by a semi-final clash with Denmark or the Czechs.
Football really COULD come home, if England beat the Germans, meaning this may well be one of the most crucial team selections in Southgate’s tenure to date. He HAS to get it right.
We certainly don’t possess the necessary managerial expertise to be making these decisions, but we’ve given it a go nonetheless. Here’s the BenchWarmers starting XI for England v Germany.
Set-pieces are going to be pivotal, just as they were for England at the World Cup. It’s for that reason that we’ve gone with Kieran Trippier at full-back. He’s also more astute defensively than Luke Shaw.
Mason Mount has been in isolation all week, but he’s still been training individually. He’s a Southgate favourite, and if it is possible for him to start, he absolutely should, unfortunately at the expense of Jack Grealish.
Grealish would rightly feel aggrieved to be left among the substitutes after his display last time out, but so will Bukayo Saka. There’s a host of different options in the attacking positions – England can’t play them all.
The rest of the team picks itself, don’t you think? Do you agree with our selections?
Fabrizio Romano’s latest BenchWarmers transfer column is out now – click here for all of his latest news