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England manager Gareth Southgate says Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka have out-ranked their absent players after their impressive performances in a 3-0 win over Wales in a friendly.
Calvert-Lewin scored his debut with a goal, Grealish was the standout player and Saka also showed promise in his first senior appearance as they seized their opportunity in style at Wembley.
They were given the opportunity in part because Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho were missing for violating Covid guidelines over the weekend.
Abraham and Sancho could be back for the UEFA Nations League game against Belgium on Sunday, while Chilwell is battling a non-coronavirus-related illness, but their fouls could have cost them.
Calvert-Lewin continued their strong start to the season by breaking the deadlock on their debut before Conor Coady and Danny Ings scored their first goals for England to seal the victory.
Southgate’s starting eleven had just 54 caps between them, but the Three Lions boss said several of them had moved up the pecking order as Abraham, Chilwell and Sancho watched.
“That is, in essence, the big lesson for anyone in that situation, you want to participate and play,” he replied when asked about the importance of a player doing everything possible to keep his place.
“When you have the jersey or a place in the squad you don’t want to allow other people to have the opportunity to take it and every time we give debuts or give time on the field to guys who deserve it.
“There they have the opportunity to take a place and push themselves up in the hierarchical order. Several did that and there is competition for places, not only for the team we named, but for players who are out of it. “
Wales manager Ryan Giggs also rested several of his key players as he keeps them fresh for his own Nations League games, but was pleased with a number of things he saw from his young side.
“There were a lot of good things,” he said.
“We started the game very well, the pressure was good and we had confidence in the ball to have against a quality team.
“If you turn off or give away bad goals, they will punish you. The first goal was disappointing because it was soft, then two set pieces after that, we usually do very well, but we just fell asleep. “
Giggs confirmed that Kieffer Moore was forced to retire in the first half with a toe injury that could exclude the forward from Sunday’s game with the Republic of Ireland.
But it offered better news on Aaron Ramsey, who missed the match at Wembley after two positive Covid tests at the club’s Juventus, and the former Arsenal player will return at the weekend.
“Aaron is fine,” Giggs added. “You will find us in Dublin, okay. He has trained all week in Turin, so everything is fine there ”.
