Chelsea ace Reece James a surprise inclusion for England
Chelsea star Reece James was a surprise inclusion in Gareth Southgate’s England squad announced yesterday.
The youngster did not have the best of outings against Denmark last time around. James was sent off after full-time after he used “abusive language” at Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano.
UEFA found him guilty and had only yesterday delivered a two-match ban for his transgression.
The Three Lions squad announced yesterday will face off against Iceland and Belgium in the Nations League and the Republic of Ireland in a friendly.
James’ inclusion comes as a surprise given he is ruled out for the Nations League fixtures. But that’s not the case for Southgate, who plans to deploy the youngster against Ireland in the friendly.
“We were very, very impressed with his club form and to be able to involve him in the game against Ireland is something we wanted to do.”
According to Football.london, the England boss is very pleased with the way James has done in the national camp and believes he is a better option than Tariq Lamptey.
“We were very, very impressed with the way he trained every day and how he took his opportunity as a sub – and then with his performance against Denmark where he was arguably our best player.”
Lesson learnt?
Despite the way things transpired after the final whistle, James was in fact England’s best player on the night. That was a fact recognized by Southgate in the interview.
The England boss is also keen for James to learn from what happened against Denmark. He believes the suspension should not rule him out of other opportunities to play for England.
“He needs to learn from what happened at the end of that Denmark game which is not acceptable and has cost him the opportunity to play in some of the qualifiers for us.”
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It is good to see Southgate reward the Chelsea youngster for his performances at Chelsea. One man’s gain is another man’s loss. James’ inclusion deprived former Blues starlet Tariq Lamptey from making the Three Lions squad.