Southgate: Injuries meant giving call-ups to undeserving players

Gareth Southgate announced a 26-man England squad for a pair of World Cup qualifying matches in October, but admitted that the team he chose features players who "do not deserve to be there."

The reason? Injuries, mainly, as Southgate estimates he has about a dozen options unavailable to him due to a rash of ailments that has left his pool of players a little thin ahead of matches against Slovenia and Lithuania.

"It's frustrating because the biggest story here is we've got about 12 players missing with injury," Southgate remarked, as quoted by Sam Wallace of the Telegraph. "It's incredible. If you were to say, 'Am I entirely happy with the squad I've named?' then no, because we've got too many good players missing with injury.

"The consequence of that is you could well argue there are one or two in the squad who haven't necessarily warranted it on their performances. I want competition for places and this time maybe we've not be able to achieve that because of the number of injuries."

Among those unavailable or not yet ready for Southgate's call are defenders Danny Rose, Nathaniel Clyne, and Luke Shaw, midfielders Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Barkley, Jack Wilshere, and Danny Drinkwater, forwards Jamie Vardy and Danny Welbeck, and goalkeeper Tom Heaton.

In their absence, players like Fabian Delph and Jesse Lingard, who have been limited to bench roles at Manchester City and Manchester United respectively, earned the nod, while Southgate also revealed he tried to talk James Milner out of international retirement.

It all makes for what Southgate believes is a team that doesn't quite represent his preferred makeup, with the unfortunate side-effect of fostering little in the way of meaningful competition for roster spots.

"The reality is what I don't want players to be comfortable," Southgate explained. "I think the danger when you don't have competition for places is twofold. What's the level needed at our club to get in the squad? And is everyone fulfilling that at the moment? Well I'm not so sure they are. And then it's, 'We come into training, am I a shoo-in to get in the team or do I have to push a bit harder because I have a couple snapping at my heels?'

"There's a good challenge for those in next week because if they want to stay in the level has to be in. There's been a couple of easy decisions because I haven't had to make phone calls this week (telling people they are out). They are always difficult but I'd rather be making them."