Our ideal England starting 11 for Euro 2020

Despite Friday evening’s defeat to the Czech Republic, England are still well on their way to qualification for Euro 2020, so we thought we’d have a look at the players available to Southgate and go through who we think should be in England’s starting 11 come the Euro 2020 finals next year. Naturally, there are going to be some different opinions on who should be picked, but we’ve tried to base our opinion on the stats and form of each player for both club and country. Given that Gareth Southgate favours the 4-3-3 formation, we will be planning the starting 11 with this formation in mind.

For a few weeks now we’ve wanted to see young Sheffield United goalkeeper Dean Henderson get his chance to be England’s man between the posts and his inclusion in the squad for the games against Czech Republic and Bulgaria was good news for us. However, it’s a simple choice to go for Jordan Pickford as England’s number 1. Having made 22 appearances for England including the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Nations League finals, Pickford is much more experienced than the likes of Henderson, Pope and Heaton, so Pickford is an easy pick for us.

Right-back provides us with more choices with the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Trippier and Walker are available. However, we’re going for Trent Alexander-Arnold due to the attacking presence and creativity he can bring to the position. Despite just turning 21, Alexander-Arnold has made 97 appearances for Liverpool and was a key part in a team that won the Champions League as well as accumulating 97 points in the Premier League last season.

Despite Manchester United’s poor start to the season, it’s clear that since his move from Leicester Harry Maguire has improved a Manchester United defense which has conceded less goals than Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal. Southgate clearly favours centre-back that are comfortable on the ball and look to play the ball out of defense, so Maguire is a perfect example of the type of defender Southgate is looking for as well as his attacking presence which has seen him score big goals for England and Leicester.

For Harry Maguire’s partner at centre-back we’ve decided to go for Everton’s Michael Keane despite his poor start to the season with Everton. Similar to Maguire, Keane has shown that his is comfortable in possession of the ball and happy to play the ball out of the defense and ease the pressure on his other defenders. This season alone Keane has averaged 56.38 passes a game so he’s definitely the type of defender that would fit Gareth Southgate’s system.

This may be a controversial choice in the eyes of some of you, but we’ve gone for Leicester’s Ben Chilwell to start at left-back for England. Since the 16/17 season Chilwell has made 78 Premier League appearances for Leicester and has been key to their brilliant start to the 19/20 season. Similar to the other defenders on this list, Chilwell is comfortable on the ball and looking to attack, averaging 74 passes per match, delivering 21 crosses and assisting 1 goal in the Premier League this season.

Starting off our midfield we’ve gone for Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson as we think he should be the holding midfielder in the team. The majority of the players we’ve gone for in this starting 11 will be moderately inexperienced when it comes to international competitions, so we think it’s vital they are surrounded by players such as Henderson who are experienced in international competitions to help and guide them.

Despite only making his first start for England against Czech Republic on Friday, we believe that Mason Mount’s impressive form for Chelsea so far this season is enough for him to start for England at Euro 2020 next year. At the moment, Mount has created more chances than any other Chelsea player so far this season which has seen him register 1 assist and score 4 goals.

For our final midfielder we were going to go for either Ross Barkley or Declan Rice, after thinking about it, we've decided to go for Ross Barkley. One reason for our choice is that we don’t think it’s necessary for us to have 2 holding midfielders as Jordan Henderson is already in the starting 11. As well as that, Barkley brings an attacking threat to our lineup as he has scored 2 goals in 6 appearances for England so far in 2019 as well as scoring 3 goals and assisting 5 goals for Chelsea in the Premier League this season.

Starting off our attack we’ve got Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho who has become one of the biggest young talents since he moved to Germany from Manchester City. Sancho has started the 19/20 season on great form after scoring 4 goals and registering 7 assists in 11 appearances in all competitions for Borussia Dortmund. His good form stretches back the the 18/19 season as well where Sancho registered 20 assists and scored 13 goals for Dortmund.

I’m fairly certain it doesn’t need to be said but with his impressive record for both club and country, Harry Kane needs to be England’s starting striker for the remainder of the Euro 2020 qualifiers and finals. After his appearance for England vs Czech Republic on Friday, Kane finds himself on 27 goals for England so it’s a no brainer that he should be the main striker.

Another easy choice for us is to start Raheem Sterling on the left side of England’s attack next to Harry Kane. Since Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City, Sterling has reached new levels which has seen him score 34 goals in all competitions since the start of last season, winning the Premier League young player of the year as a result. The flexibility that Sterling brings is also incredibly beneficial for Gareth Southgate as he is comfortable to play on either side of the striker to meet the needs of his manager and has done so on multiple occasions for both City and England, a quality that many other players don’t possess.