Carragher slaughters Southgate over axing England star as Rooney names second player who is ‘big loss’

Gareth Southgate has been under fire from Jamie Carragher for leaving out Jarrad Branthwaite, an Everton defender, from his England squad for the European Championships, while Wayne Rooney has named a Manchester United player he believes will be a significant loss.

In their final warm-up encounter at Wembley on Friday night, the Three Lions were defeated 1-0 at home by Iceland. Next Sunday, they will play Serbia in Gelsenkirchen to begin their Euro 2024 campaign. England’s poor performance resulted in jeers from the crowd as Southgate’s aggressive lineup was unable to overcome a resilient and strong Icelandic defence, who scored a superb goal on the counterattack and established themselves as possible dark horses in the competition hosted by Germany.

After cutting seven players from the first party, Southgate had reduced his 33-man provisional squad to just 26 names for the competition just a day earlier. Among those let down were stars from Tottenham, Liverpool, Everton, and Manchester United.

Carragher, though, believes Southgate made a mistake by ignoring Branthwaite, the elegant Everton player who made his debut on Monday at St. James’ Park in a 3-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina as a second-half replacement.

Carragher, who views himself as England’s “present and future,” believes Southgate made a grave mistake by leaving him out, allowing players like Brighton’s Lewis Dunk and Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa to make the team.

“Lots of bigger names than Jarrad Branthwaite have missed out on the England squad, but he should’ve been picked to go to Euro 2024,” wrote the former Liverpool mainstay on X, which was once Twitter. “He is the future and present of England.”

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Carragher is a huge Branthwaite fan for Manchester United.
Branthwaite has had a fantastic season making his Everton debut. He has established himself as one of the Premier League’s best young defenders, and Manchester United is one of the 21-year-old’s biggest fans.

Even though Sir Jim Ratcliffe is eager to close a deal to bring Branthwaite to Old Trafford this summer, TEAMtalk has learned that Everton is standing firm on their minimum £70 million asking price, which makes the transaction challenging to execute as it stands.

In the past, Carragher described Branthwaite as a “special” player who he saw reaching the pinnacle of the game.

Earlier in the season, when talking about the Everton player on Monday Night Football, he stated, “I think he is [special].” He and his relationship with [James] Tarkowski are a major reason why, in my opinion, Everton still has a fantastic chance of winning.

Being a muscular and agile defender who can read the game well, combined with his aerial dominance, makes him a highly sought-after center-half this summer.

But according to Southgate, Jarrad is a little too young for the Euros, saying, “It’s a bit early for Jarrad.”

“He’s had an amazing season, and it was nice to see him play the other night.” Of course, in a perfect world, left-footers would balance out. I don’t think it would have been the proper decision at this point for him to enter before the others. That’s why, at left-back, we’ve taken what, in my opinion, is a calculated risk—a gamble that pays off. Luke Shaw

England will miss second-star Wayne Rooney.
Harry Maguire, a 63-cap standout, is another well-known player who did not make the cut. His inability to fully recover from a calf injury has finally cost him dearly.

The Manchester United player has a wealth of tournament football experience and has shown to be a dependable member of the Three Lions squad over the years.

Furthermore, Rooney believes Maguire’s absence has already been felt despite the fact that Maguire has publicly expressed his “huge disappointment” at missing out. This is because he saw what he perceived to be a disorganised defensive performance in the loss to Iceland.

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Although this was only their second start together (the first being the 4-0 home loss to Hungary back in June 2022), John Stones and Marc Guehi are probably England’s first-choice defence duo for the tournament. However, Stones left the game at halftime due to an ankle injury.

Rooney now believes that England could suffer from a lack of international experience in the core of the defence.

Naturally, Rooney told Channel 4 that she hoped John was alright.

“Again, I’m sure Gareth and the coaches will be showing them that the back line was a little bit fragmented at moments tonight due to a lack of experience.

We’re really enthused about the attacking guys on this team, so they need to get that right. They also need the back line to support them and be aggressive.

“I believe that this performance demonstrates the value of Harry Maguire to this England team and the significant loss he represents to the group.”

When asked if England could win the competition, Rooney responded, “Absolutely.”

“Like I mentioned earlier, this is a very exciting squad; they have the players and the firepower.”

“My only concern is that the back line needs to be powerful.

“But if we do that, I think we have more than enough to take teams on, and we have a great chance.”