Gareth Southgate has an axe to sharpen.
On Tuesday afternoon, the England manager named a provisional 33-man squad that will begin preparations for the upcoming European Championship, which will be cut down to size before UEFA’s deadline for final squad submissions on Tuesday, June 1.
UEFA has raised squad limits from 23 to 26 players to help cover for COVID-19-related issues, meaning that seven men face the chop before next week’s warm-up friendlies against Austria and Romania at the Riverside.
Here, 11 writers from The Athletic present their arguments for the unlucky seven they would leave out of England’s squad for Euro 2020.
The problem here is that we don’t know yet how fit some of England’s key players are going to be. If Harry Maguire is struggling, England will need the experience of Conor Coady and Tyrone Mings, and that means losing Ben White and Ben Godfrey.
