Gareth Southgate has a squad to select this week, so no one will be more painfully aware of the fact that English players are desperately short of action in the Premier League.
Only 57 of the 220 players starting the final round of our top league qualify for Southgate’s squad – and six of them are goalkeepers.
Among the so-called elite, the traditional Big Six of the Premier League, the percentages are tightened even further. Tottenham, not so long ago a haven for English footballers, and Liverpool started with one each. The clubs from Manchester both with two.
Fulham started at Arsenal on Saturday without a single player available for Southgate. Everton boasted the most with six starters against Wolves. They were the only team to be more than half English, and with no point or goal on the board, that’s not a good sign to reverse the trend.
It is a trend well set. In fact, so well tuned that the acceleration hardly raises an eyebrow. After all, it is the modern game.
England boss Gareth Southgate has a major headache as he prepares to name his squad for this week’s latest internationals
Harry Maguire is one of Southgate’s trusted England players not playing regular games, while Levi Colwill (R) could be promoted to the first team
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Chelsea was the first to field a team without an English player in 1999. We all understand how internationalism is crucial to the Premier League’s success, its global appeal and its ability to weather crises like the pandemic relatively unscathed.
However, it has become a headache for a series of English bosses. During the first three weeks of this season, only 28 percent of all Premier League starters were English. This is down from the 31 percent in last season and down from the 36 percent in 2020-2021. The rate is alarming.
Central defense is the most concerning for Southgate, and has been for some time. Hence the endless debate around Harry Maguire, the defender of Manchester United without competitive football since the barely competitive 7-0 win against North Macedonia in June.
Of the five specialist centre-backs selected for the World Cup less than a year ago, John Stones is injured, and Maguire and Eric Dier are well out of favor with their clubs. Conor Coady, who signed for Leicester in the Championship, is injured.
The only one of the five who is fit and playing is Ben White, who has not been capped by England since returning early from Qatar. With Tyrone Mings also injured, it feels like the right time for Southgate to bring White back and promote Chelsea player Levi Colwill to the senior squad for next month’s games, a European Championship qualifier against Ukraine and a friendly against Scotland .
This is not a crisis that will derail England’s excellent start to the qualifying season, but there is a broader point.
Many of Southgate’s central defensive options will be battling in the bottom half of the Premier League this season, often deep defensively, often on the back foot, quite the opposite of the style of football England are trying to produce as they prepare for another tournament . summer.
It’s a curious situation because English football hardly seems to be in bad health. Lee Carsley’s Under 21s are European champions, a title won without selecting Bukayo Saka or Jude Bellingham, both of whom were eligible. At the age of 23, Phil Foden shines for all-conquering Manchester City. At the age of 24, Declan Rice is seeking compensation of £105 million.
England have won the European under-21 championships, but their stars need chances to progress
Bukayo Saka is one of the few players who made the big leap from youth academy to senior football
These individuals are brilliant products of the controversial Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), launched by the Premier League in 2011, giving the biggest clubs the freedom to pick up and nurture the best young talent in their gold-plated academies.
While it has done little to help those struggling to survive on the lower slopes of English football’s pyramid scheme, the EPPP has undoubtedly achieved its goal of providing elite teenage footballers, who can compete with similar age groups from any country in the world.
Unfortunately, it only solved half the puzzle, as still only a small fraction of the talent developed up to the age of 18 gets a chance to get started.
Inevitably, the gap between academy football and the self-proclaimed best league in the world is huge, and while some like Saka make it seem simple, it’s arguably more difficult than ever to bridge.
Loans and moving abroad are possible solutions. Much of the current England national team originated in the EFL, yet in terms of quality and tactics it is perhaps as far from the top of the Premier League as ever.
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