Southgate named England 23-man squad for 2018 World Cup

Gareth Southgate has named his 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup.

With the Premier League season now concluded, only the FA Cup, Europa League and Champions League finals stand in the way of the countdown to the World Cup.

The excitement is slowly beginning to increase ahead of the tournament in Russia.

There has been no shortage of speculation surrounding England’s squad, too, with supporters debating over the best starting XI at Southgate’s disposal.

Players such as Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Jamie Vardy and Kyle Walker were always guaranteed to make the plane but Southgate had some major decisions to make elsewhere.

One of the longest running debates concerned whom would head to Russia as England’s number one goalkeeper.

Reports on Tuesday confirmed that Joe Hart would miss out after a torrid season with West Ham as Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope and Jack Butland make the cut to compete for a starting spot.

Hart played between the sticks for England at Euro 2012, the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 but his post-Manchester City form simply hasn’t been good enough.

There was the debate of whether to include more left-field candidates such as Ryan Sessegnon, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Jadon Sancho who have impressed recently but without ever collecting an England cap.

And while Southgate will be able to assess his options to a greater degree across international friendlies with Nigeria and Costa Rica, his 23-man cohort is now set in stone.

Fans can only hope that his choices pay off when the Three Lions walk out against Tunisia on June 18.

Take a look at the full squad below:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jack Butland (Stoke), Nick Pope (Burnley).

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose (all Tottenham), Harry Maguire (Leicester), Phil Jones (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Gary Cahill (Chelsea).

Midfielder: Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana (both Liverpool), Eric Dier, Dele Alli (both Tottenham), Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young (both Man Utd), Fabian Delph (Man City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea).

Forwards: Raheem Sterling (Man City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

Optimism is arguably at an all-time low for England going into a major tournament, so the only way is up for Southgate and his decided group of players.

Qualification to the knockout stages looks almost assured against lowly ranked Tunisia and Panama, although the crunch match with Belgium will go a long way to deciding England’s progression from there on in.

England still boast a relatively young side and it will be interesting to see if the Three Lions have progressed from their disastrous Euro 2016 campaign.