Gareth Southgate reviews England’s 2-0 win against Malta
Graeme Souness has leapt to the defence on Chelsea star Raheem Sterling by calling out Gareth Southgate for picking Jack Grealish ahead of him. The England boss caused a stir after snubbing Sterling yet again despite the Chelsea star’s rise in form in recent weeks.
The 28-year-old, who hasn’t featured for England since the World Cup quarter-final back in December 2022, has registered four goal involvements in his last five Premier League games for Chelsea.
Grealish, meanwhile, has largely been kept out of the Manchester City team by summer signing Jeremy Doku and is yet to register a goal in his 13 appearances in all competitions this season.
Despite this, Southgate called Grealish up to his England squad for their final two Euro 2024 qualifiers and left out Sterling. Former Liverpool and Scotland star Souness was left scratching his head by this decision and insisted defenders would much rather play against Grealish – who didn’t end up featuring in Friday night’s 2-0 victory over Malta – than Sterling.
Writing in his Daily Mail column, Souness said: “If you’re a full back, would you rather play against Sterling or Jack Grealish? I think 10 out of 10 would rather play against Grealish. Sterling is more dangerous than him. Defenders are terrified of pace and directness. Grealish threatens to go down the line, does a couple of stepovers and then cuts inside and plays the ball square nearly every time. Sterling goes at you and, as a defender, you’re praying you have a team-mate covering you,” Souness said.
“We’re seeing less and less of Grealish at Manchester City, and more of Jeremy Doku. Would you want to play against Doku? No, because he’s more like Sterling.”
The ex-Sky Sports pundit’s comments come after a well-publicised back-and-forth between himself and Grealish. Souness has been critical of the England forward on a number of occasions in the past and riled up the City star to the point he publicly retaliated by declaring last year: “I don’t know what his problem is with me.”
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Souness responded by insisting he didn’t have any personal issues with Grealish and would like to take have a night out with him to which the 28-year-old jokingly accepted providing he could bring along Paul Pogba – another player who was often on the receiving end of criticism from the no-nonsense pundit.
Grealish himself admitted that his numbers needed to improve following City’s 3-0 demolition of Young Boys last week with Pep Guardiola preferring Doku at present. He said: “I need to start scoring more goals. I know what I bring to the team aside from goals and assists, but every attacking player wants to score more goals.”
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