With just one friendly international, against Costa Rica at Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium on Thursday, left before this summer’s World Cup England manager Gareth Southgate has offered some small clues about his strongest side in Russia after the official squad numbers were released.
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who started the 2-1 win against Nigeria at Wembley on Saturday, looks set to start England’s first World Cup group game against Tunisia on June 18 with the coveted number 1 shirt after a raft of speculation over Southgate’s first choice custodian.
Captain Harry Kane will wear the number 9 shirt while Raheem Sterling has been handed the number 10 shirt with Jamie Vardy of Leicester City given the number 11 shirt.
Vardy’s Leicester team mate Harry Maguire may get a start against Costa Rica with John Stones looking rusty and out of form.
Southgate’s tactical preference for a 3-5-2 formation may have to be adaptable given the opponents that England could face in the World Cup and the notable lack of creative midfielder able to pick out any of England’s fast forwards with a long pass.
This may explain why the England boss has mainly selected ball-playing centre halves in front of Pickford, who is no slouch on the ball himself, with the notable exception of in-form Gary Cahill who scored the opening goal against the Super Eagles at the weekend.
The national team’s route may be slightly eased by today’s shock news that City’s flying winger Leroy Sane was left out of potential quarter final opponents Germany’s final World Cup squad.
England’s Squad Numbers for World Cup 2018
1 Jordan Pickford (Everton)
2 Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
3 Danny Rose (Tottenham)
4 Eric Dier (Tottenham)
5 John Stones (Manchester City)
6 Harry Maguire (Leicester)
7 Jesse Lingard (Manchester United)
8 Jordan Henderson (Liverpool)
9 Harry Kane (captain, Tottenham)
10 Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
11 Jamie Vardy (Leicester)
12 Kieran Trippier (Tottenham)
13 Jack Butland (Stoke City)
14 Danny Welbeck (Arsenal)
15 Gary Cahill (Chelsea)
16 Phil Jones (Manchester United)
17 Fabian Delph (Manchester City)
18 Ashley Young (Manchester United)
19 Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
20 Dele Alli (Tottenham)
21 Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea)
22 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
23 Nick Pope (Burnley)