This international break sees England facing arguably the world’s best two international teams. England will play World Champions Germany on Friday the 10th of November, kicking off at 8pm at Wembley.
The Three Lions will then follow up that up with another mouth-watering game as they take on Brazil on Tuesday 14th of November again kicking off at 8pm at Wembley.
Gareth Southgate speaking recently expressed the desire to have England playing possession based football and therefore has based his selection around players who are technically very sound and are comfortable on the ball.
From his original squad Southgate has already had 6 high profile withdrawals as Spurs trio Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Harry Winks have all dropped out as well as Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph.
Chelsea starlets Tammy Abraham who is on loan at Swansea City and Ruben Loftus-Cheek who is on loan at Crystal Palace this season are both in the reckoning to play for their country at full-international level for the first time against possibly the best two teams in the world.
Both will be set to achieve this before becoming seasoned Premier League regulars which says a lot for their development under Chelsea’s management and youth development policies.
Loftus-Cheek has made 7 appearances so far for Crystal Palace this season and has been performing well in a seriously under-achieving and struggling team.
Abraham has played 14 matches for Swansea City and has banged in 5 goals including a brace to single-handedly earn all 3 points for the Swans when they beat Huddersfield Town back in the middle of October.
Abraham is clearly delighted to get the call-up to his national team as he recently tweeted, “Words can’t describe the feeling but truly blessed and honoured to be called up to England seniors. Thanks for all the messages”.
Some have argued that it is not fair to drop these young stars in at the deep end as it could hurt their development and confidence if they are involved in drubbings from Germany and/or Brazil but it clearly shows how the English players are doing at the moment when Gareth Southgate is picking such young players for important games ahead of the World Cup next year.
Despite the possibility of disappointing results the two Chelsea players are likely to grab the opportunity with both hands as they are both seasoned internationals at younger England levels.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek won the Toulon Tournament with England U21’s in 2016 and scored what proved to be the winning goal under Gareth Southgate who was then the England U21 manager.
Tammy Abraham played a key role in England’s run to the semi-finals this past summer at the U21 European Championships following his stellar season at Bristol City where he banged in 23 goals in 41 games to save the club from relegation.
Blues fans can look forward to seeing both starlets potentially making their full-international debuts in the same game and we will be watching and pulling for them to play well and deliver on their undoubted potential.