Arsenal fans concerned about Bukayo Saka’s fitness will be in two minds about the news that the winger has been called up by Gareth Southgate for England’s upcoming Interlull fixtures with Australia and Italy.
On the one hand, the decision to select the winger suggests the injury he picked up in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Lens is not that bad. Conversely, it means he’s facing another couple of games when it seems clear he could probably do with a rest.
Here it is: your #ThreeLions squad for October! 👊
— England (@England) October 5, 2023
“He’s still being assessed [by Arsenal],” said Southgate when asked for an update on Saka’s fitness.
“Obviously, they’ve got a big game this weekend. Then there’s another seven days before we play Australia and 10 before we play Italy as well. Everybody will monitor everything as we go forward.”
Saka has limped out of Arsenal’s last three games leading to questions about Mikel Arteta’s reliance on the player. He took knocks to his ankles against Sp*rs and Bournemouth and then appeared to aggravate a hamstring injury trying a backheel during this week’s Champions League clash in France.
As things stand, the player is a doubt for the visit of Manchester City on Sunday and we suspect the manager will play his cards close to his chest tomorrow when he faces the press.
Saka is one of four players to get the nod from the Three Lions. Aaron Ramsdale, Declan Rice and Eddie Nketiah have also been selected.
Australia visit Wembley for a friendly on Friday 13 October before Italy come to London for a Euro 2024 qualifier four days later.
England squad
Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal)
Defenders: Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Al-Ettifaq), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City), Declan Rice (Arsenal)
Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United) Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), James Maddison (Tottenham Hotspur), Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
Southgate again with his ridiculous selection of Maguire over Ben White. WTF
Also please rest Saka
I think Ben White may have told them to fuck off……..
Yeah I think Ben White is safe from selection until Southgate gets sacked.
It could be a trend going forward if FIFA, UEFA and the PL can’t sort out the player welfare issues. Players need a minimum of 30 days off at the end of the season to recover physically and mentally. It makes no sense for the clubs to pay the players and UEFA and FIFA, two corrupt organizations, exploit the players for their own monetary gain. Benny Blanco has shown us the way, fuck em.
I get the feeling White doesn’t really care and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he never played for England. He’ll get regular breaks throughout the season and a full summer off each year for the rest of his career – that’s a fantastic thing for his physical and mental health.
He’s said it himself. For him football is just a profession. He doesn’t attach too much emotions to it. Therefore emotional hype for playing for Nation isn’t really that big. He’s rather spend time with his family.
A true professional
I agree, Maguire is a liability to himself and the team. He plods around the field like a donkey with no vision of where players or the ball is.
Guess who’s also in Ghana’s squad?
Ghanaian footballers?
I’m not even Ghana guess
😅😁🤣
Let Nketiah play ffs if you select him!
Nketiah scored lot of goals for Southgate when he was the U21 manager and therefore helped him get the senior team position. Being rewarded, it is frankly up to Eddie to make it impossible for Southgate to keep him on the bench. If he scores two against City that will happen.
Have to play Watkins given his form
Gareth just can’t bloody help himself can he?
No place for Benjamin white. Southgate the fool.
At some point I think we need to start considering that maybe White’s just not interested in international football, which is fair enough.
Probably not accurate to suggest it’s completely down to Southgate.
Do NOT play him vs City, not even off the bench. That will essentially give Southgate free licence to play him for England! We might lose this game but it’s not worth risking the next year or two of Saka’s career if god forbid anything worse happens. Remember when Tomas Rosicky’s hamstring strain turned into 18 months out? Take care of our dear Bukayo please
that does not make sense,
It doesnt make sense to say we should rest him to avoid further injury?
Im an official Saka worrier and I take your point but if he can play I think he should. Any other game I’d agree w you. We need to beat them to kickstart the season and I can’t see that happening without him.
Seems like very much prioritising the short term gain for the club over a player and their whole career.
I get the concern but I think it’s safe to assume that someone who’s recently matched (beaten?) the club record for consecutive appearances does not share the same injury record as Tomas Rosicky.
I loved the man but he was never the most robust, was he?
Too early to tell for Saka. Rosicky seemed pretty robust at the same stage in his career at Dortmund and with the Czech Republic, until one day he wasnt. I really dont want to see the same happen to Saka.
I mean if fit, he’s basically the
firstsecond name on the team sheet (even seeing s****s play some much improved footie this year Gareth will never realise that prioritising Kane so highly in team tactics actually caps the teams’ ceiling). I’ll take this as a positive that Saka is probably not injured too bad (mostly because dealing with the opposite is too depressing).arseblog news, number one site for balanced perspectives on harry kane
D is right, s***s are better w/o Kane, england would be better w/o kane,
Well, for what it’s worth, it’s pretty clear Spurs are better because they have a new manager, not because they lost Kane. I don’t like the guy because of his diving, his need to pump up his statistics against the Panamas of the world, etc. But he is currently playing very well for one of the best teams in the world. Of course, he starts for England, just as Bellingham does.
I guess Bayern needed a new Robben to satisfy their diving quota. Kane should be nicknamed Poseidon.
spurs are better, because son can step in for kane as is also clinical, and they added maddison, and they are responding better to the new manager. they are able to replace kane’s goals by spreading the goals and are playing better as a team.
Spurs are shit – their run at the start of this season is far and away overproducing points than even what Emery’s Arsenal unbeaten run did. Good ebeing to all this talk of their ‘improvement’
They’ve gotten at least 4 points from the pgmol this season.
Like Mourinho said to the french national coach about Makele, I am saying this to Southgate :
“Saka is a slave”.
Makelele
Mourinho is a cunt.
Maybe don’t take talking points from mourinho
To say I’m not best pleased with Saka’s inclusion is an understatement. 🤯
I suspect Bukayo will make his own decision about whether he’s fit enough to play for England. the lad has earned that much recognition for this to be respected.
If Saka isn’t careful his career will be over by the age of 30. He’s already played far too much football. The history of football is stuffed with great young players who did too much too young and ended up broken beyond repair by their late 20s. That remark by Arteta that players Should be prepared to play 70 games a season is arrant nonsense. That’s how hamstrings, knees and Achilles tendons are wrecked. Both Southgate and Arteta need to think carefully about how often they use Saka in the future. He only has so much to give before he… Read more »
I remember how Henry was managed and searched:
“Many are blaming the 2-0 loss [to Man U] on the absence of Henry for most of the game. Henry started from the bench because he was tired, and the Arsenal manager was concerned about Henry picking up an injury due to fatigue.
Wenger said: “You know the problem with Thierry. If you lose the game and don’t play him then it’s the wrong decision but what if he’d played, we’d lost and he’d picked up an injury?
Don’t often agree with your beggy and neggy comments but you’re absolutely right with this one
I understand your concern and also find myself hoping he is rested more but I saw on a youtube show, stats produced that the likes of Henry, Messi, Ronaldo and others were averaging about 50 appearances a season at Saka’s age. He is still averaging a bit less than that.
Agree and it upset me to hear James remarks on Saka. His stance is that fans worry too much and he’s more resilient than we realize. Which completely ignores what you just said. We see it all the time, please don’t ruin him and get him a proper backup!! Pedro Neto sounds about right.
Not signing a quality backup to Saka was a huge mistake by Arteta this summer.
We needed a quality centre-forward and a winger. Instead, precious money was squandered on Havertz and Raya. And a new contract was awarded to Reis Nelson, who Arteta doesn’t trust to deputise for Saka.
Crazy squad management.
If you were a good RW would you sign for us knowing Saka always plays when fit?
You guys live in dream land I swear.
Yes I would. I’d get plenty of playing time.
Southgate hints at his worrisome £45M answer to England’s attacking options against Australia
-Football London Headline Intern
Thank God Arteta’s unjustified treatment of Ramsdale hasn’t affected his England call-up.
As for Tim Stillman’s article on Raya, saying that “ Ramsdale certainly wasn’t a major weak link”!
he wasn’t any kind of weak link Tim! You don’t get shortlisted for the Yashin trophy if your any kind of ‘weak link’.
FFS, play Ramsdale against Man city.
As much as I love Ramsdale he is cocky and with that cockiness comes error of judgement. Sometimes he sorts it out anyway because that’s how good he is, sometimes he gets away with it by pure luck but sometimes he doesn’t and it costs us. I think Arteta gave him last season to grow out of that and when he didn’t Raya was brought in.
Resting is for old people
He cut our legs off here. We could have given some minutes knowing that there was a break to recover but now we have to show our hand.
Look at that defence. We are one of the best teams in the league and he is one of our best players. What did Ben White do?