Exclusive: Will Maddison just be a tourist? Newcastle’s top four chances, Trippier over Trent and more…

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In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa and Liverpool striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Gareth Southgate’s England World Cup squad, this weekend’s Premier League fixtures, and the importance of leadership in football.

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A look at the final round of Premier League fixtures before the World Cup

Yeah, it’s an interesting time because this hasn’t happened before, not in modern football history, where a World Cup is wedged bang in the middle of a season. With the Premier League, I think we could have a really interesting set of dynamics at play. I’ll give you an example from when I played for Liverpool.

I think it was about four or five days before the 1996, FA cup final, Liverpool against Manchester United. The two biggest clubs in the country, by far, the two most successful clubs in the country, by far. I remember going down to Highbury and this weird vibe was going around the Liverpool dressing room. Players were thinking “we’ve got the FA Cup final on Saturday, what do we do?”. The league was pretty much done and this game wouldn’t make too much difference. I felt completely detached from the game. Players deep down wanted to save themselves for one of the biggest games of their careers. We could see a lot of players going into this weekend possibly pulling out due to not wanting to get an injury before the World Cup.

Newcastle against Chelsea is the game of the weekend for me. Last Saturday night fixture before the World Cup. For Newcastle and Chelsea, this is a massive opportunity to fire a warning shot towards the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and the rest. If Newcastle win this by a couple of goals, when we come back after the World Cup break all the talk will be about whether they can do it, and whether they can finish in the top four. Chelsea have their injury problems, so I think it’s going to be a really interesting game.

It’s going to be fascinating this weekend to see which clubs turn up and how the worry of getting injured will affect the performances. Clubs will be looking at their position in the league and will be desperate to cement that ahead of the World Cup break. I think there are going to be some exciting games with plenty of goals.

Incentivising wins could be the key to Newcastle’s success

The Premier League has the potential to throw up miracles. I think that although the Saudi money has come in, they have managed to do it by spending sensibly. I think what would have happened at Newcastle is, although you’ve seen the likes of maybe Miguel Almiron performing exceptionally this season when previously they were impostors. They’ve made some excellent signings, but what I think Newcastle will have done is insensitive their players better and improve their bonus system.

Maybe, for example, they’d increase their win bonus from for example a few grand to maybe 50, 60, or even 100 grand a win. So all of a sudden, that performance uplift is tangible. We’re looking at similar players who played under Steve Bruce near the bottom of the league. Newcastle United fans now have a team they can identify with, they can see the progression from last season and how Eddie Howe has improved individual players. New contracts, bonuses, and if Newcastle get into Europe this season, I can see them making two or three marquee signings next summer. They could go out and spend money in January, but most people would expect Newcastle to be in the top half so finishing in Europe is just a bonus. However, if they beat Chelsea this weekend and Howe and the board go other to Saudi during the winter break, the owners could be looking to invest heavily and think “why not? Let’s give it a go” and chuck hundreds of millions at the squads.

Trippier to start over Trent, and would Maddison have made a 23-man squad?

After an impressive start to the season, fans are now shouting and screaming, James Maddison, he has to go. He creates, he scores goals, and he’s learnt from his mistakes, so in terms of the public getting what they want, I think that’s a clever political move from Gareth Southgate. Let’s be honest, we had a very poor Nations League tournament. We go into the World Cup against Iran, which won’t be easy by the way, they are a proper football country and they will play with passion, so never underestimate national pride. We play Wales and USA, again, it won’t be easy. It’s a tough group.

Does Gareth Southgate's England Need Trent Alexander-Arnold Or Kieran Trippier Or Both?

The big one for me is will Trent Alexander-Arnold start for England? I don’t think he will. I think that Gareth may well go with three centre-halves with wing-backs. I think Luke Shaw will play on one side with Trippier on the other, with Kyle Walker as part of the three. There’s been a bit of fluidity and flexibility with Gareth, messing around with different systems. When we come to midfielders, this is the area where we can show that flexibility. I think the Kalvin Phillips inclusion is Gareth being loyal to players who he knew wasn’t going to be match fit but wanted to give the benefit of the doubt too. Mason Mount is one of his favourites, we’ve got Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham probably as the defensive midfield pivot.

Looking at the forwards, was it going to be Callum Wilson? Was it going to be Tammy Abraham? With Marcus Rashford in form for Manchester United, that means we’ve got Harry Kane leading the line. If he doesn’t play, we’ve got Rashford who can do that job. If not, Rashford can play off the left or right, then we have Wilson who is a completely different striker to Kane. He’s in great form. England’s creativity in tournament play is generally poor. Hopefully, we see a different story this year. We have an overreliance on one or two players. I really want to see the coming of age of Phil Foden. I hope now, whatever Gareth’s front three is, and I hope it’s a front three, is that they all test each other. Foden fighting against Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka fighting against Raheem Sterling. I don’t think there are any major surprises in this squad. Maddison and Wilson have been playing really well – I don’t think either player would have made it if the squad was only 23 players.

I think England will get out of the group, then who knows what might happen. I’m more than happy with the squad.

Conor Coady over Fikayo Tomori, I completely understand.

You’ll hear managers say “he’s a good tourist”, and Conor Coady is just that. Everything that came out of the England camp before the Euros was that Coady was the instigator, he got the players bubbly, he put his arm around them and set an example in training. I think it’s really important to have those players in the group. Coady is a quality player, it’s not patronising him. He’s a very good option to have in the squad.

In terms of Fikayo Tomori, he played for AC Milan at Stamford Bridge and I believe Steve Holland and Gareth Southgate were there. I believe Tomori was at fault for one or two goals that night. Holland and Southgate may have left the stadium and thought, nope, he’s not for us. Let’s stick with what we know – Southgate is a pragmatist and he’s loyal. He rewards loyalty and he rewards players who do well for him. That’s why he was a little stand-off with Jack Grealish, he had to prove himself. The same with James Maddison, he now has a chance to prove himself and be a good tourist. He may have looked at Tomori and thought, not sure. With Coady, he’s absolutely sure about him – he’s going to be great around the players in a completely different World Cup environment.

 

More Stories Connor Coady Conor Coady Fikayo Tomori Gareth Southgate James Maddison Kieran Trippier Stan Collymore Trent Alexander-Arnold