Gareth Southgate explains James Maddison’s World Cup inclusion

Southgate announced the squad on Thursday, November 10. The Three Lions will begin their World Cup campaign with a game against Iran on November 21. They are in the same group as USA and Wales.

Maddison has impressed Southgate as he got an England call-up. During 2022, the Foxes star has scored 17 goals and provided 10 assists.

“He’s playing really well. Good player, we’ve always said he’s a good player. He’s earned the right,” Southgate said.

“We think he can give us something slightly different to the other attacking players we’ve got.

“I think at various stages there have been conversations and debates about James, there’s been moments where, ahead of the Euros, I don’t think he was in contention, he had a bit of a problem with his hip.

“And then I think September was probably a fair debate, but I think he’s playing as well as any of the attacking players in this country.

“And he’s a little bit different to the others, we’ve got different types of threats and I think we could need that.”

The England boss added: “I spoke to James because this morning there was a lot of speculation that James wouldn’t be with us, and we’d decided a couple of weeks ago that we would [pick him] – but obviously we weren’t going to go and tell him then.”