James Garner always had an uphill battle to make England’s World Cup squad, but one wonders if Thomas Tuchel has some regrets over the Everton star now.
James Garner just finished his best season to date in his career, which culminated in him winning Everton’s Player of the Season award.
Which Everton player are you expecting to have the best World Cup? 🏆
The star was ever-present in the Premier League, and showed himself to be a complete midfielder.
Garner – who is said to be a new target for Newcastle United – provided creativity and tenacity in equal measure, and his efforts saw him rewarded with a new deal in January.
Sadly, he did not quite do enough to make the final England World Cup squad – but Thomas Tuchel’s decision is already looking questionable.
Thomas Tuchel should have taken James Garner to the World Cup with England
Garner only made his England debut back in March, so potentially, he just came onto the scene too late.
But there was still a strong argument for Tuchel taking him, because he offers so many things.
And crucially, he does not just play in midfield.
We saw last season how Garner filled in at right-back, and his level didn’t even drop – he looked a natural at times.
Last week, there was bad news for England when Tino Livramento had to leave the camp due to a calf injury.
And now, England’s first-choice right-back Reece James is struggling with an injury of his own. The Chelsea captain has complained of a tight hamstring.
So that’s the back-up right back out of action, and the first-choice is having to now be carefully managed.
Both James and Livramento have poor injury records, so this was always a possibility, and therefore makes it strange that Tuchel did not call up Garner to begin with, as someone who can play right-back as a secondary position.
Interestingly, there are also fears over Declan Rice’s fitness now, after the game with Ghana.
We will see if James can overcome this issue and feature against Panama on Saturday.
But if he doesn’t then it’s potentially going to be Djed Spence at right-back. Spence was primarily brought to play on the left side as back-up to Nico O’Reilly.
It just feels that Garner’s versatility would have been useful to have in a squad that harboured two injury-prone right-backs.
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