On the 21st of May Gareth Southgate announced the provisional squad for the European Championships in Germany. A provisional squad means that he has picked over the amount he can take and he will get them to train together and the people who don't train to a high enough standard will be cut. Personally, whenever a European Football tournament is on I support England because my club is from England. As well as this, Zimbabwe missed out on a lot of tournaments so I want to support someone and England is my choice. I enjoy seeing the team they pick and I was comparing this current team to the team from the 2012 Euros and the improvement is drastic.
The Definite Starters
There are a select few players that will absolutely start no matter what and if they got cut from the squad it would be because of something very serious. When people think of the England squad, the players who stand out as starters are Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Phil Foden and John Stones, having players like this as their spine is the reason why England have such good Euros odds and are looked at as the favourites for bookies. These are players that need to start and if they don't start or if they get injured England will be damaged massively. There are a few players who will need to be there and will most likely start and we will call these players the useful group.
The Useful Group
These are players who are extremely talented and will play but aren't definite starters. Players like Saka are the prime example of this because he is very very talented and would play for a lot of nations in the World but England have players like Palmer and Foden who can play in his position and have been better this season. If someone asked me right now if Bukayo Saka should and will play I would probably say that he will play and should. I also think it is dependent on the players that Gareth Southgate trusts. When we look at Saka's international career it is clear that Southgate trusts him and compared to Palmer, who has had one call-up and didn't get any minutes, it is clear to me that Saka will start.
Other players who will go but may not start are Kieran Trippier, Kobbie Mainoo, Eberechi Eze, Ollie Watkins, and Joe Gomez. Every single one of these players are really useful squad players to have and they can all play multiple positions to a really high standard. They also offer different things to the people who will start and this is great for England as they need to utilize their versatility.
On The Plane Home
Some players, unfortunately, won't make it to the tournament and as much as it is upsetting for them, I think these players know exactly who they are. When we look at the squad so far we can see players like Curtis Jones, Jarrod Bowen, Lewis Dunk and James Trafford are all talented players, believe if I could take them all for the Zimbabwe national team I would, but don't have the star power and the talent to get into the team over players in their position.
If you asked any football fan if they think that Curtis Jones would start over Jude Bellingham or if James Trafford would play over Jordan Pickford, all the logical fans would say that neither should start. One of the players who are closer to being on the plane than most others here is Jarrod Bowen, he offers more of a goal-scoring threat than most of our wingers but doesn't have the name that Jack Grealish has so he will get into the squad as much as he probably should.
