England: Opportunity knocks for fringe stars as Gareth Southgate's final Euros squad takes shape

Gareth Southgate arrived in the north-east armed with the numbers and the caveat.

“We’ve got 43 days until the final,” the England boss said at the Three Lions training base near Darlington on Sunday. “Not every day is going to be a great one, not every hour is going to be perfect.”

Of the 42 that now remain, the next five are unlikely to be given too much airtime in the telling and retelling should England make it all the way to Berlin on July 15 and, once there, lift a men’s major trophy for the first time in 58 years.

This is, though, a pivotal week for Southgate, with plenty to resolve in friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, the former tonight at St James’ Park, before Friday’s send-off at Wembley.

As so often, the England manager’s job is a juggling act. While attempting to fine-tune his first XI, Southgate must also assess those on the fringes of his 26, with seven players set to be axed from the 33-man provisional squad on Friday. While trying to establish rhythm and combination, he must also manage workloads at the end of a gruelling club season and make decisions with knock-on implications over how big a risk to take on the fitness of key men.

For tonight’s game, Southgate’s hand has been forced somewhat. Bukayo Saka and John Stones are not quite up to speed, Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire are still injured, albeit on the mend, and Jude Bellingham is under orders to put his feet up until the weekend after his role in Real Madrid’s Champions League success.

Without half of his preferred outfield 10, then, Southgate appears set to rest several others, in the hope of fielding something closer to a first-choice XI against Iceland. Harry Kane, he has confirmed, will not start in Newcastle, and Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Kobbie Mainoo may not either, having played in the FA Cup final nine days ago.

Still, though, within an experimental line-up, Southgate must find a way to answer the most pressing questions in areas of the field of most concern, places where options must be trialled and relationships struck up.

It is why, for all the concern about fatigue, Arsenal’s near-ever-present Declan Rice will surely play, England’s most irreplaceable player also the necessary control variable in a still inconclusive experiment at the base of midfield. How else to gauge whether or not a Trent Alexander-Arnold-infused axis might function at the Euros?

Likewise, with Shaw and Maguire doubts for the opening group game against Serbia later this month and not certain to make the final squad, there is onus on Toon hero Kieran Trippier — captain tonight — and Marc Guehi to offer an alternative as the left half of the back-four.

Then there is the need to trim the fat, to figure out the identities of the soon-to-be-gone, the Scrapped Seven if you will. Yesterday, Southgate gave the impression of just about knowing his ideal 26. He also revealed he has been up front with his least experienced players about their chances of travelling to Germany, and of the uncapped members of this squad — James Trafford, Jarrad Branthwaite, Jarell Quansah, Adam Wharton and Curtis Jones — most will make up the core of the culled.

Unexciting, perhaps, but no surprise: Southgate has not taken an uncapped player to any of his three previous tournaments, save Aaron Ramsdale, who was called up as an injury replacement third-choice keeper once Euro 2020 had begun.

But there are trickier decisions to be made among more senior players. Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins look to be in a shootout for one place, and Eberechi Eze and James Maddison may be in a similar duel. Jack Grealish was offered no assurances over his spot yesterday and must fear the same ruthless streak that means Marcus Rashford is already on holiday, too.