What does the England squad mean for FPL managers?
Gareth Southgate has named a 25-man England squad for their two friendlies. We assess whether this could impact FPL in any way.
England friendlies
As they have already qualified for this year’s World Cup, England have arranged two friendlies as other nations battle in the play-offs.
Both at Wembley, first up is Switzerland on Saturday. Three days later, Ivory Coast come to town.
The squad
A 25-man squad was initially announced on Thursday but was updated on Monday with four replacements.
Walker-Peters and Mitchell were added on Monday alongside West Brom goalkeeper Sam Johnstone and Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins.
Elsewhere, there are the usual players. Names like Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Declan Rice, Mason Mount, Harry Maguire and Ben White.
Who is missing?
Perhaps more interesting is the list of players not involved. Trent Alexander-Arnold (hamstring), Reece James (muscle), Aaron Ramsdale (hip) and Tammy Abraham were withdrawn because of injury.
Jurgen Klopp ruled Alexander-Arnold out for “weeks” but The Athletic have optimistically heard these weeks will be few.
“His hamstring injury isn’t serious and there’s cautious optimism inside the club that if he continues to respond well to treatment then he should be fit for most of that April schedule.”
Fellow right-back James was called up despite missing Chelsea’s last four matches. Thomas Tuchel said:
“The recommendation is that he does not go. He is still in individual training. He needs one more week of rehabilitation and I think we can provide this much better. It is not the job of the national team to do this.”
Similarly, Ramsdale is only expected to miss one FPL match at most. He could even play against Crystal Palace in Gameweek 31. He was seen on the pitch celebrating with Bernd Leno after their 1-0 win at Aston Villa.
However, Man United pair Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford were dropped by Southgate. Sancho, in particular is a surprise, given the recent good form that has brought five attacking returns from his last five league starts.
FPL impact
Both have the mental strength to kick-on from this and prove Southgate wrong. FPL managers could do worse than picking up Sancho as a differential for the run of Leicester (H), Everton (a), Norwich (H) and Liverpool (a) over the next three Gameweeks.
Ramsdale and James are ‘wait-and-see’ situations, where they could play in Gameweek 31 but manager press conferences should reveal more. Even if recovered, Alexander-Arnold could easily be rested at home to Watford ahead of a crucial, intense run of Liverpool fixtures. Then it’s Man City (a) and only one match during Gameweek 33. Some will opt for a short-term sale.
