Perhaps the most surprising inclusion in England’s 26-man squad for the upcoming World Cup, as confirmed on Thursday is Conor Gallagher.
Making a mere six starts for in the Premier League this season, the youngster has failed to replicate his electric performances for Crystal Palace in a Chelsea shirt.
As a result, it seemed as if there was not even the slightest possibility that the 22-year old could earn a seat on the plane to Qatar.
However, it seems as if Gareth Southgate has decided to bring the energetic midfielder in place of potentially including another forward to the mix such as Ivan Toney, Tammy Abraham or Jadon Sancho.
When quizzed about his decision to bring Gallagher on board, Southgate told reporters, “He’s fantastic at pressing the ball and I think there are going to be moments in these games where we need certain attributes and there are any number of players in this squad with different attributes to be able to utilize at those moments.”
“And we feel he could be that sort of a player. So, he’s not as experienced with us as some of the others, but he has an impact in games, he’s got a goal threat.”
The Three Lions boss added, “When you talk about midfield players, you look at: do they stop goals? Do they create goals? Do they score goals? He does a little bit of all of that actually.”
“We were really pleased with the way he responded to being left out of our squad [in September], he went with the Under-21s, performed really well, his mentality was excellent.”
“And it’s a great example that if you approach it in that way, there’s always a route back with us and he’s managed to achieve that straight away.”
Ultimately, Conor Gallagher will be determined to repay Gareth Southgate’s leap of faith in him in the potentially limited minutes he is afforded at the World Cup.
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