Teenager Marcus Rashford has already taken Wayne Rooney’s place in the Manchester United forward line, now he threatens to do the same at worldwide level after Roy Hodgson included him on Monday in his 26-man preliminary squad for Euro 2016.
Advertisement
The headline news is that Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford has earned his first ever call up to an England senior squad after only making his club debut a couple of months ago.
Harry Kane is expected to be the first choice striker but he also has to starve off competition from skipper Wayne Rooney, Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy, Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge, who has been in a good run of form off late, and the fledgling Rashford.
Hodgson has challenged Rashford to knock one of England’s current strikers “off their perch”.
Andros Townsend, a former United loanee who won the last of his 10 caps in October, comes in following Danny Welbeck’s knee injury but there is no place for Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.
Jack Wilshere and Jordan Henderson are both included despite the injury doubts surrounding the pair, with Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge joining Rashford in the attacking ranks.
Hodgson has until May 31 to name his final squad. I was very pleased to see Jordan Henderson back at the weekend.
Hodgson was asked about notable absentees from the squad, one of which is United midfielder Michael Carrick.
“Wayne Rooney has done a fantastic job for England – 109 games, 51 goals.that’s one terrific record and there aren’t many players in Europe, at worldwide level, who reach that level of success”.
And yet Hodgson has made a decision to sacrifice one central defender to add to his resources further forward. We’ll see how far that takes us.
“With the youth of this squad, I’d like to think it will have a long future. We go there with a desire to win the tournament”.
“But in terms of selecting a team for Russian Federation, I’ve got three matches before that”.
England will lock horns against Turkey in a friendly match on Sunday before taking on Australia on May 29.
Advertisement
England’s central defence will be their biggest problem at Euro 2016 having had failings against quality opposition exposed in recent years.
