Lee Carsley says it will be difficult for him to include Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden in the same starting XI when England take on Greece and Finland in the Nations League. But the interim manager is determined to find a creative solution in the longer term to have them play together.
Carsley was able to name all three in his squad for next Thursday’s Wembley match against Greece and the visit to Finland three days later, having been without them in September when England beat the Republic of Ireland in Dublin and Finland at Wembley. Bellingham and Palmer were injured; Foden was ill.
Carsley’s most eye-catching selection was a recall for Dominic Solanke – seven years after the centre-forward won his only cap in a friendly against Brazil. Carsley also picked Kyle Walker after excluding him on fitness grounds in September.
There was no room for Tino Livramento, Jarrod Bowen or Eberechi Eze. Nor was Harry Maguire selected, Carsley explaining that he needed to assess other players in central defence. One of his messages was that he did not want a “cut and paste” squad – freshness is important, as is competition; even an element of jeopardy. Places must be earned on form.
The focus fell on a problem that dogged Carsley’s predecessor, Gareth Southgate – namely, how best to accommodate the talents who would probably most like to play in a No 10 role. Carsley also has Jack Grealish, who he used as a central attacking midfielder against Ireland and Finland in his 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system.
Carsley was asked specifically about Bellingham, Palmer and Foden. “I think with the period of the season we are in, I can probably justify why we wouldn’t start all three of them at the same time in terms of the amount of games that they’re playing, what they are going back to and what they have come from,” Carsley said. “Some of the stages they are at in terms of just coming back from injury or not having had that many minutes. What’s important is that we get them all on the pitch at some point and we try to find the balance.”
Could the trio play in the same team? “Yes, you’d try and find a way of getting them into the team,” he said. “We’ve got to be creative. If they are all playing well and they all earn that place in the team.”
Carsley’s mind went back to when he attended Uefa’s conference for coaches and technical directors in mid-September, which was to review and analyse Euro 2024.
“A lot of the head coaches spoke about how many good players we’ve got but they almost referred to it as a problem,” Carsley said. “Whereas I am thinking it’s a nice problem to have. The challenge is getting the balance. It might mean that now and then one of them misses out or in terms of a tournament, it’s very rare that you start the same team in every single game.”
Carsley made the point that he had never had such a quick turnaround of matches in an international window. As such, he did not “see anyone playing on Thursday, then repeating on Sunday and expecting them to go back to their clubs and be in tip-top condition”.
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The discussion took in the notion of football becoming more of a squad game; less emphasis on the starting XI, more on impact substitutes. “I was at the Aston Villa [versus Bayern Munich] game,” Carsley said. “Ollie [Watkins] comes off and the substitute [Jhon Durán] goes on and gets the winning goal.
“With the amount of games the players are playing and the importance of the squad, it seems more accepted now that you’re maybe looking at a team for 70 minutes and almost like the ‘finisher’ [for the last 20]. It’s not something that would have gone down well in my day. If you were subbed, it was always seen as a slight on the way you played. The players now seem a lot more receptive to that kind of thing.”
Carsley will have one more window in interim charge next month when his team will complete their Nations League programme with matches against Greece (away) and the Republic of Ireland (at home). The question will then be whether he has done enough to earn the job on a permanent basis, perhaps in time for the 2026 World Cup qualification draw on 13 December.
“I really enjoyed standing on the touchline at Wembley [against Finland],” Carsley said. “I wasn’t standing there thinking it was a bit much. It was something I was confident in doing as were the rest of the staff. It was really inspiring that at 0-0 at half-time, the players were getting cheered off. The fans would have expected goals in that first-half but I think the way the players were playing, how aggressive they were in trying to attack really helped.”
As Carsley did with Walker when he named his previous squad, he insisted that Maguire still had a part to play. “It was more a case of we’ve got four centre backs that I wouldn’t mind seeing play,” Carsley said with a nod to John Stones, Marc Guéhi, Ezri Konsa and Levi Colwill. “Harry is so important; he has been and he will be in the future. I wouldn’t want to bring a really experienced player away and not play him in any minutes. I don’t think that’s fair.”