Gareth Southgate Wants Experience, But You Can Win The World Cup With “Three Or Four Caps”

England head coach Gareth Southgate backed Harry Maguire during the recent international break, saying he would only drop experienced players like the Manchester United defender if the situation became untenable.

But Maguire, who was ruled out of this weekend’s match against Manchester City due to a hamstring injury, has played less than 200 minutes of Premier League soccer this season. If he can’t force his way back into United boss Erik Ten Hag’s plans, then that “untenable” situation could become reality.

National team head coaches always have to balance current form with squad cohesion, and given the short amount of time they have with players during the international break, this scale needs to be tipped more heavily towards cohesion than most fans realize. If national team head coaches pick whoever happens to be playing well at a particular moment, the large number of unknown faces would make for some extremely disjointed performances.

Back in March, Southgate said “We aren’t going to win the World Cup with a load of players on three or four caps. That’s never happened in the history of the game.”

Those words don’t bode well for the likes of Marc Guehi (three caps), Fikayo Tomori (three caps) or Ben White (four caps).

Selecting a whole team of barely capped players would obviously be unwise, but should Maguire’s club situation make his England future untenable, Southgate should consider a few players with a relatively low number of caps.

When France won the Russia 2018 World Cup, full backs Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard both started in the final against Croatia despite having few caps before the tournament.

Hernandez had five caps before the start of the tournament, and two caps before the pre-tournament warm-up camp, while Pavard had six caps, with three of those coming before the warm-up camp. Substitutes Steven Nzonzi and Corentin Tolisso, who both came on in the final, had two and six caps before the warm-up camp, respectively.

Admittedly, the amount of time to prepare before Qatar 2022 is shorter than it was for Russia 2018, with most teams likely getting in just one warm-up match instead of three, but there’s still room for some players with little experience to break into the starting line-up and play key roles, like how Hernandez and Pavard combined for France’s equalizer against Argentina in the round of 16.

When England reached the final of Euro 2020, their team included Kalvin Phillips, who had seven caps before the warm-up camp, Jack Grealish who had five caps, and Bukayo Saka, who had four.

And a certain Harry Maguire had just four caps to his name ahead of the training camp for Russia 2018, before going on to be one of England’s most important players in their run to the semi-finals.

England have been targeting Qatar 2022 as the tournament they think this current squad will peak at, so that might be affecting Southgate’s thinking, with him possibly more prepared to try untested players in previous tournaments so they can get some experience ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

But recent tournaments show that it is possible for players with three or four caps to come into a squad and play a key role in helping their team succeed.