England coach Gareth Southgate says Tammy Abraham has had ‘a poor run of goal-scoring at the wrong time’ and suggests Fikayo Tomori has not done enough to push ‘more experienced defenders out.’
Both Serie A stars have been left out of England’s World Cup squad. No Serie A representatives will play for the Three Lions at Qatar 2022. Southgate explained his picks at a press conference on Thursday.
“We wanted to make sure we had the balance of the squad right. I think at this stage, the squad is more important than ever with five substitutes almost half the team changes during the game,” he said.
“You want different players for different stages of the games and the tournament.”
Abraham was Roma‘s most prolific debutant last season but has only scored four goals in 19 games this term, which is the reason why Southgate didn’t include the ex-Chelsea striker in his 26-man squad.
“Tammy has had a poor run of goal-scoring at the wrong time. We are now ten days from the first match,” the England coach said.
“We don’t really know any of the players, we are watching their club form, but we don’t really know where they are until we see them face-to-face on the training pitch.
“There would be medical issues that we are not completely aware of yet, we know the form in the matches, but you don’t get the full picture until you speak to them and see how they train with each other.”
“We’ve picked our more experienced defenders,” Southgate continued, explaining his choices at the back.
“The younger ones have good qualities, but we don’t think they’ve quite done enough to push the experienced ones out.”
Tomori had made the England squad during the Nations League break in September but returned to Milan before the second and last game after watching the entire match against Italy at San Siro from the bench.