England Manager Gareth Southgate explains why Cole Palmer did not play during international break
Gareth Southgate’s insistence that Cole Palmer, a forward for Chelsea who did not play a minute against either Brazil or Belgium, is still in the running to make his final team has given the player’s waning prospects of qualifying for Euro 2024 a major boost.
Palmer, who is currently in form, earned his debut for England in November and was called up once more by Southgate for the most recent Wembley friendlies.
He did not play against Belgium off the bench, though, due to a slight injury that kept him out of the Brazil match.
With good performances in those two matches, Jarrod Bowen and Anthony Gordon have expanded Southgate’s options in attack.
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But the England boss is still thinking about Palmer a lot.
Palmer leads the Premier League in goals scored and assisted this year with eight. Southgate stated, “I said when I named the squad there is competition for places in those wide areas.”
It’s unfortunate that Cole Palmer missed so much practice and couldn’t start the game against Belgium at the moment because he was out for the majority of the week.
While we knew what we would get with Gordon and [James] Madison, we weren’t exactly sure what we would get with us. Cole is still a possibility in that scenario.
Because of the quality of England’s wing players, regulars like Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish could be left out of the Euros this summer.
In the match against Brazil, Rashford only saw 15 minutes of action off the bench. Grealish, however, was unable to make the squad due to an injury sustained while playing for Manchester City.
