"I'm pretty confident this England team could stay up."
England are set to play a friendly against Germany on Friday evening at Wembley, ahead of another friendly against Brazil on Tuesday. However, for two of the most challenging fixtures they have faced in some time, England are without several key players. Gareth Southgate has had to deal with six withdrawals from the squad - Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Dele Alli, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph - while Jack Butland broke his finger in training.
The England manager also chose not to include experienced players in the squad such as Daniel Sturridge, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere, and will have to pick an experimental side against the world champions. Eric Dier is set to captain the team, which is unlikely to ever play together again.
According to Sky Sports, the starting line-up will be Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford behind a back-three of John Stones, Phil Jones and Harry Maguire. Tottenham pair Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose start as wing-backs, Dier and West Brom's Jake Livermore are in midfield. Ruben Loftus-Cheek starts behind Tammy Abraham and Jamie Vardy.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/status/928902016797216768
Pickford, Loftus-Cheek and Abraham will make their senior international debut, Maguire will earn his second cap and Trippier will win his third cap.
Unless there's a catastrophic injury crisis at the end of the season, this team won't be the one Southgate selects in the World Cup next summer in Russia. It's an "experimental" line-up, and one that hasn't gone down well with England fans.
https://twitter.com/untypicalboro/status/928939932722360320
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https://twitter.com/CianCronin17/status/929005942645149696
