Brighton Fan View: Murray and Dunk can show Southgate what he is missing

Glenn Murray and Lewis Dunk should be given the opportunity to show what Gareth Southgate is missing when Brighton take on Manchester United in the quarter-final of the FA Cup this weekend.

Despite a clamour for his call-up following a recent burst of goals, I was not overly surprised that Southgate overlooked Murray for England’s forthcoming friendlies with the Netherlands and Italy. I was hopeful he would get a call but felt his age counted against him. However, the fact Danny Welbeck was picked instead made no sense on current form.

What surprised me, though, was that Southgate continues to ignore Lewis Dunk, who has been magnificent in Brighton’s debut season in the Premier League. To rub salt into those sounds Burnley’s James Tarkowski, who was run ragged by Murray at the Amex, got his first call-up along with Swansea’s Alfie Mawson.

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Dunk’s slim World Cup hopes have gone now and it is hard to fathom why. Southgate moaned in his press conference about the ‘very small number of English-qualified players in the Premier League’ who are playing regularly. Dunk bucks that trend by having played every minute of every game in the Premier League this season, winning rave reviews from many ex-players along the way.

In truth, Southgate has totally flummoxed me since becoming England manager. As much as I want him to succeed and as much as I want England to succeed, I think he is tactically lacking, his selections continue to baffle and this summer in Russia will be another big let down.

While Southgate might not want them, I hope Chris Hughton chooses both Murray and Dunk for the FA Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford, alongside all our other regular choices.

In the FA Cup this season, Brighton have fielded essentially a second string side, because the priority has been staying in the Premier League. I have agreed with that, but we need to approach Saturday’s game differently. This is only the third time in the club’s history that we have got to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, admittedly it will be a tough ask to get through and that is why we need to put out our strongest possible side on this occasion. The fact that an international break follows the game means resting players is not an issue.

Have we got a chance? Yes, of course we have. Rather like a better version of Arsenal, you just don’t know at the moment which Manchester United you are going to get: the one that can blow you apart or the one that will limply fail to deliver.

Am I worried by Brighton’s defeat at Everton last Saturday? No, I’m not. We had been on a fantastic run of both results and performances and it was not going to continue indefinitely, plus Everton were desperate for a result and performance of their own after a disappointing run which had seen them slip below Brighton in the table. They were worthy winners and Brighton must quickly forget that game.

We now have an exciting run of fixtures which will go a long way to defining our season. After the FA Cup, we host Leicester and then Huddersfield in the league, followed by a trip to arch rivals Crystal Palace. This is a key stage in our season and if Gareth Southgate wants to continue baffling us by overlooking Brighton players then we will happily have them concentrating on club football.