Branthwaite, Toney and the small answers Southgate must find for England’s big moments

Fans can be forgiven if England has fallen off their radar recently.

It is a long four months between the November and March international breaks, enough time for supporters to get so settled into the rhythms of club football that England take a back seat.

But even as the club season approaches its climax, just over the horizon, after the title, FA Cup, and Europa and Champions League finals are won, is the European Championship. It is a tournament that, for better or worse, will be a defining one in the modern history of the England men’s team.

Hosted by Germany, this will be the tournament that defines manager Gareth Southgate’s legacy.

If England win it, then the importance will not need to be explained to anyone, marking Southgate out as one of only two England men’s managers ever to lift a major trophy. But with his contract expiring at the end of the calendar year, it could also be the last that we see of Southgate in a role he has transformed during the almost eight years he’s held it.

There is no talking around the fact Southgate will take to these Euros a stronger squad than England have had for a generation, if not longer.

Maybe not in terms of depth, simply due to the paucity of English players competing every week in the Premier League, but in terms of the number who could claim to be among the best footballers in the global game, no England manager has been able to call on more: Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have been better this season than ever before, making their big transfers to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively last summer look blissfully easy. Phil Foden, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka have all been brilliant in the Premier League. Alan Shearer wrote in The Athletic last week that England have five members of the best front six in world football.

But none of this means fans should be booking their hotel rooms for the final in Berlin on July 14 quite yet.

Everyone knows international football is a difficult, complicated puzzle to solve, a challenge for every manager to get the right pegs into the right holes at the right time.

At every tournament under Southgate, his England team have looked different. The 2018 World Cup was about the structure of a 3-5-2 and a reliance on set pieces. In the previous Euros, delayed 12 months to 2021 by the pandemic, he gave them two formations to switch between and started to introduce young players. And at the 2022 World Cup, they tried a more expansive game, built around Bellingham. It might have worked, but the big moments in the quarter-final against holders and eventual runners-up France went against them and England were flying home before they wanted to.

So there is still plenty of work for Southgate to do and plenty of questions that still need to be asked.

This is why the Wembley friendlies against Brazil and Belgium over the next two weeks are so important and why the FA picked the teams ranked fourth (Belgium) and fifth in the world as third-placed England’s final opponents before the pre-Euros warm-up games in June.

Southgate will still have questions he wants to explore about the specific make-up of his team, players he wants to learn about before he has to name his tournament squad. “We could not have a better test,” Southgate said of the matches next Saturday and the following Tuesday. “There are lots of learnings that are really important for us ahead of the summer; that is one of the priorities.”

It might have been easier for Southgate to just pick established players, to get them more experience playing together and get in the groove ahead of the Euros. Instead, he wants to keep learning, which is why he has three uncapped players in the group he named today (Thursday): Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, Aston Villa centre-back Ezri Konsa and Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon, as well as one-cap Brentford striker Ivan Toney and two-cap Chelsea forward Cole Palmer. That alone points to how much learning Southgate wants to do from these two games.

Clearly, centre-back is a perennial issue for Southgate, not so much in terms of quality but in terms of depth: John Stones and Harry Maguire have been the rocks upon which Southgate has built his team over those three prior tournaments, but behind them, there has never been very much.

In recent years, England have had Tyrone Mings, Eric Dier and Conor Coady as experienced understudies. Marc Guehi has been capped recently but is currently injured. Southgate said the versatile Ben White “didn’t want to be considered”. Hence the promotions of Konsa and Branthwaite, players in form for their clubs. Branthwaite is especially notable as he is a left-footed centre-back — England do not have many of those. If either shines this month, they could make it to Germany instead of more experienced alternatives.

England have another issue in the centre of midfield. Bellingham and Rice are guaranteed starters, but the identity of the third player alongside them is not clear.

Jordan Henderson, who was that man at the World Cup 14 months ago, is now back playing at a high level with Dutch club Ajax after spending the first half of the season in the Saudi Arabian league and Southgate is monitoring his performances carefully. But Kalvin Phillips, who started for him at the previous Euros three years ago, is not in this squad even after leaving Manchester City for West Ham United on loan in January in search of more game time. Southgate has said that “a good version of him is an important player for us” and expressed his hope that Phillips’ form picks up and he forces his way back in, but until he does that, there is more scope for Conor Gallagher to establish himself.

Perhaps the most interesting question concerns the strikers. Toney and Ollie Watkins are in this squad, with both players vying to be the first-choice backup to captain Kane. Watkins has 16 Premier League goals for Aston Villa this season, whereas Toney has only recently returned from a long ban for gambling. This will be his first England involvement since and his only cap to date was a brief appearance off the bench this time last year, but it feels like a fairly even competition between the two for inclusion. Will Toney’s inventive, target-man style or Watkins’ busy running in behind win the day?

Branthwaite (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Throw in Gordon, offering pace and goals from wide areas, and England have another new option to look at. Gordon and Jarrod Bowen are both putting pressure on Marcus Rashford in that role and if they impress in these two games, it could be harder for the latter to stay in the group.

So there is plenty riding on this pair of friendlies, not just the results of the matches themselves but the chance to address a few of the never-ending list of questions and dilemmas Southgate faces. Those questions might sound small now, but they will not be when England get to Germany and suddenly need a backup centre-back, legs in midfield or an alternative to Kane.

Southgate does not have much time left for answers.

England squad to play Brazil and Belgium

Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal)

Defenders: Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Ajax), James Maddison (Tottenham), Declan Rice (Arsenal)

Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Brentford), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)

Fixtures

Saturday, March 23: Brazil, 7pm GMT, Wembley, London

Tuesday, March 26: Belgium, 7.45pm GMT, Wembley, London

(Top photos: Getty Images)