Social Chatter: England fans baffled as Ross Barkley and Mark Noble are overlooked by Sam Allardyce

James Matthews rounds up the reaction to Sam Allardyce’s first England squad as fans are baffled by the omission of two midfielders.

England manager Sam Allardyce’s first squad selection has left fans baffled by the absence of two in-form midfielders.

Allardyce kicked off his reign as national team coach with the release a largely unchanged England squad from the era of predecessor Roy Hodgson.

There is just one new face - that of West Ham winger Michail Antonio, but it was the exclusion of his club team-mate Mark Noble and Everton star Ross Barkley that serious irked fans.

The squad in full to face Slovakia in the opening 2018 World Cup qualifier was released on Twitter.

Antonio’s name was joined by those of Danny Drinkwater, Theo Walcott, Phil Jagielka and Luke Shaw, who all missed out on the Euro 2016 squad Hodgson due to injury or omission.

And the West Ham winger took to Instagram to post his delight at being called up for the first time along with a quote from Allardyce, the man who handed him the place in the squad.

But England fans and pundits were baffled by the absence of both Barkley and Noble.

Barkley has enjoyed a positive start to the season for Everton but finds himself out of the picture for England having already been an unused squad member at Euro 2016 under Hodgson.

And there was no more sense made of Noble missing out again having also failed to catch the eye of Hodgson after an impressive season last year.

Even more bewilderment came from Allardyce’s decision to recall Arsenal star Walcott for yet another attempt to show his talent on the international stage.

Rashford, for the record, is in the under-21 squad.

Despite a love of stating the obvious on Twitter, Gary Lineker, meanwhile, wasn’t wrong in his assessment of the England squad.