James Maddison worth the gamble but Gareth Southgate says Serie Nah with England World Cup squad – The Warm-Up

*Okay, not everyone. But let’s face it, the England squad isn’t that contentious. Anyway. Now we've got your attention. Onwards…

Three years and one month ago, James Maddison entered a casino and skewed the narrative on his England omissions thereafter.

It has quickly been forgotten that the Leicester playmaker actually played for England a month later, making his debut off the bench in November 2019 despite the furore around his casino visit just hours after withdrawing from the October 2019 squad due to illness.

He in fact went to the casino “on his own, to sit and watch the second half by a poker table,” Brendan Rodgers told us, and perhaps had this been a simple, quant pub visit instead then the reaction would have been entirely different.

Instead, the talk was that Maddison was gambling his England future away, with this bad-boy image being plastered across tabloids aplenty for a player who is seemingly anything but.

After all, anyone need only watch Maddison’s post-match interviews to see the type of character he really is, and despite three years in the England dark, he never gave up on forcing his way back into Gareth Southgate’s plans, even when his form was seemingly ignored.

It's all part of the journey, and this approach to simply go on about his business away from the limelight has led to him emerging as Southgate’s wild card at Qatar 2022, with the England manager admitting Maddison had made the plane two weeks ago – meaning a fortnight of noise had been created around a decision already done and dusted.

So, Southgate has rolled the dice and whether he likes it or not, he appears to have given in to public opinion, although now the real fun begins. From the makers of “Start Jack Grealish” at Euro 2020, get ready for the next excuse if it all starts unravelling in Qatar. “Why isn’t Maddison coming on?!”

Maddison’s inclusion far from guarantees him a place anywhere near this England side (the most-debated squad calls often are). He is listed as a forward, and if England do go 3-4-3 then he could well be the No. 10 in a formation where there isn’t one. This points towards Southgate changing it up mid-match, but if Maddison is competing with Mason Mount, plus Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish for the supporting Harry Kane roles, don’t hold your breath on the Maddison airtime.

“He's always been up against some really good players in that area of the pitch,” Southgate admitted. "There have been times when we've played 4-3-3, without a No 10 profile and that didn't necessarily fit.

“But, like I said, he's playing exceptionally well. He was delighted [when we spoke on the phone]. I had some very different calls that were, emotionally, at the other end of the spectrum. So it was nice to give myself an enjoyable end to that.

“All of those calls - the difficult ones and the really enjoyable ones - were a reminder of what it means to the players.”

Some say Southgate doesn’t have a BT Sport account…

Okay, so that isn’t verified, but evidently Southgate is not exactly the biggest Serie A fan, with his World Cup squad presenting a grim reality for those English players looking to get a differing footballing education abroad – namely Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori.

Okay. The Abraham one we get, despite Southgate saying “Tammy’s had a poor run of scoring form at the wrong time” the day after the Roma forward scored…

But Tomori? That’s a tad more surprising, but at centre-back Southgate favours players he properly knows.

It all makes for a pretty 2018 list in Harry Maguire, John Stones, Eric Dier and Kyle Walker – with Conor Coady and Ben White the back-ups – and when you’ve just decided to switch to three at the back, it does not overly excite the England fan among us when you know three places in your XI are going, probably, to Maguire, Stones and Dier.

Ah well.

So. Many. World. Cup. Squads. Announced. Yesterday.

Sure FIFA’s deadline is this weekend, but on Thursday there were big reveals aplenty:

Oh, and if only there was a place to read every single World Cup squad in full. Ahem… HERE.

Away from the World Cup and squads and all that, how about that Alejandro Garnacho, eh?

A super cameo from the 18-year-old helped Manchester United overcome a stubborn Aston Villa in the EFL Cup last night, with two Garnacho assists including the below beaut for Scott McTominay.

And on a day where Jadon Sancho was overlooked by Southgate, the England winger will be realising his place in the United team will be under greater pressure after the World Cup, because Garnacho ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Almost 10 years ago… It’s a lovely line that has inevitably resurfaced, although as pointed out, if this were the case then Southgate would only have around 56 players in the entire country to choose from.

Always worth countering the World Cup enthusiasm with World Cup reality.

Here’s the Guardian reporting on migrant workers who helped construct the stadiums at the World Cup in Qatar, talking about how they had to endure “workplace violence, including physical, verbal, and mental abuse”. The report shows there were some cases of good practice, but Equidem’s findings concluded that Qatar has been a “hostile environment” for stadium workers.

It’s Friday, but there is some football to get stuck into later. England’s Lionesses play Japan in a friendly tonight, Dortmund are in Bundesliga action at Gladbach, and Birmingham City play Sunderland in the Championship.