England squad named for October Nations League fixtures

Jonathan Victoria • 03 Oct 2024 News

More of the same as last time out, please…

Lee Carsley has named his squad for England’s upcoming Nations League fixtures, and the real highlights this time around are the inclusion of Dominic Solanke and the exclusion of Harry Maguire.

The interim national team boss will be taking charge for his second outing after a promising first showing, in which Carsley not only led the side to back-to-back 2-0 wins but played a style of football that fans have been dying to see for a long time.

Not only that, he surprised many with his first squad selection, bringing up a number of players he coached before when he was formerly the under-21 manager, in particular a few from his 2023 Euros winning side.

He has continued that trend, naming those players in his squad once again alongside some of the other usual suspects.

Warranted returns

The biggest inclusion into the squad this time around is Tottenham’s £55m summer signing Dominic Solanke, who is in line to make just his second appearance for the national side, first appearing back in 2017.

After a slow start to the year, Solanke has been finding his feet in the last few games with Spurs, scoring three in his last three games.

As for other’s who have made their return to the squad, star man Jude Bellingham is back after missing out during the last two fixtures due to injury, as did Kyle Walker, who also returns.

Unfortunate exclusions

Of course, with returns comes those who must be dropped, and unfortunately for Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, his lack of starts in recent games for the Red Devils has seen him dropped from England.

Carsely spoke with Maguire about his decision to leave him out, saying "Harry was very positive in the conversation we had… It was a case of talking about what the decision was, we have some really good centre-backs who are keen to play. Harry still has an important part to play in this squad in the campaign."

Jarrod Bowen, Eberechi Eze and Tino Livramento have also been dropped after appearing in the last round of fixtures.

However, the biggest exclusion comes in the form of James Maddison, who has once again been overlooked despite a strong start to his campaign.

While competition is fairly high in the England midfield, Maddison’s level so far this year most definitely warrants a call-up - at least, that’s the sentiment of most other people, but not for Carsley.

Full squad & fixtures

England have two more games in their Nations League campaign coming up, and they have a chance to take the solitary lead of their group at the conclusion.

Currently, they sit in second place, level points with Greece but behind by one goal. They will have the chance to go ahead of them in the standings when they face them at Wembley Stadium on Thursday 10th October.

Following that, England will travel to Helsinki to face Finland on Sunday 13th October.

Here is the full announced England squad:

Goalkeepers

• Jordan Pickford (Everton)
• Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace)
• Nick Pope (Newcastle)

Defenders

• Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
• John Stones (Manchester City)
• Rico Lewis (Manchester City)
• Levi Colwill (Chelsea)
• Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace)
• Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)
• Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Midfielders

• Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid)
• Phil Foden (Manchester City)
• Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
• Declan Rice (Arsenal)
• Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United)
• Connor Gallagher (Atletico Madrid)
• Angel Gomes (Lille)
• Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)

Forwards

• Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
• Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
• Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
• Jack Grealish (Manchester City)
• Noni Madueke (Chelsea)
• Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)
• Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur)