Everton star Conor Coady says ‘everybody’ at the Toffees is ‘gutted’ James Tarkowski is not going to the World Cup. Gareth Southgate has left the centre-back out of England’s squad.
The Three Lions manager announced the 26 players he is taking to Qatar on Thursday with Coady making the team. But Southgate has elected to leave Tarkowski at home as England bid to improve on their fourth-place finish at Russia 2018. Jordan Pickford will also feature.
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Coady and Pickford are the only Everton players in England’s team for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Even though Tarkowski has offered consistently impressive displays beside Coady at Goodison Park this term. He joined the club after leaving Burnley as a free agent in July.
Lampard sought to sign Coady and Tarkowski over the summer to improve his backline at Everton. Their arrivals – with the former joining on loan from Wolves with a £4.5m option to buy – forced 12-cap England star Michael Keane out of their line-up and onto their bench.
Both, Coady and Tarkowski, have taken Lampard’s backline to a higher level with a string of composed and authoritative performances. Their vocal presences in the Toffees’ ranks has brought focus to the club’s defence. They also help to reduce the shots that Pickford faces.
Coady: ‘Everybody’ at Everton is ‘gutted’ Tarkowski is not going to the World Cup
A recall to the England squad for the first time in three-and-a-half years would have been richly deserved for Tarkowski. Southgate last included the £90k-a-week enforcer in a Three Lions’ team in March 2019. He also earned the last of his just two caps in September 2018.
Coady has since emerged as one of Southgate’s favoured defenders with his first call-up in September 2020. The 29-year-old has only failed to feature in one of England’s subsequent squads. He withdrew from their side in November 2020 after an NHS Test and Trace alert.
Now, Coady is off to his first World Cup but is gutted his Everton teammate, Tarkowski, is not also in England’s plans. Qatar 2022 will be Pickford’s second World Cup after featuring at Russia 2018. Tarkowski withdrew from the 2018 standby list to undergo hernia surgery.
“I’m good mates with Tarky,” Coady told talkSPORT. “I sit next to him in the dressing room, I spend a lot of time with Tarky – obviously, in Everton every single day. I’ve gotten really close to him, he’s a really, really good friend of mine and we’re all gutted for him.
“Everybody at the football club is gutted for him because it’s such a huge honour. It’s a huge thing to go to a World Cup, I think we all know that ourselves. We were all gutted for him, and it’s the same with [Aston Villa defender Tyrone] Mings, as well.”
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