Wharton call-up praised by fellow midfielder Rice and manager Southgate

Club

6 Jun 2024

Facing the media ahead after announcing the 26-man England squad to compete at the 2024 UEFA European Championship, England manager Gareth Southgate was joined with midfielder Declan Rice who was full of praise for Adam Wharton in particular.

“He’s been outstanding” said Rice when asked about his new England teammate Adam Wharton.

“In training, he impressed a lot of the players. He’s so composed and calm on the ball. He played his first half of the season in the Championship, he’s [come into the England team] from Crystal Palace now.”

“He's got a beautiful left foot, really crisp passing. And all round, just a really down-to-earth boy who wants to learn. He's still obviously only 20 years old, but to be on the plane to go to his first European Championships, what a moment for him and his family and I know he's one who won't take it for granted.

“You know, he'll be ready when called upon. I think you see the other night how composed he is and he's ready for the big stage.

“I think he's one of them that doesn't get fazed by big things. So yeah, two great additions [Wharton and Kobbie Mainoo] and I’d say the future is looking bright for England in midfield."

Manager Southgate nodded on as Rice delivered the praise for Wharton and also tipped his hat to Marc Guéhi’s ability to step in at the back in place of England regular Harry Maguire.

“The decision on Harry [Maguire] is totally about his physical condition and recovery from the injury. There is no other reason, he is one of our strongest centre-backs.

“In terms of those that can come in: clearly… Marc [Guéhi] played the other night, but Ezri Konsa has also had an excellent season at Aston Villa… There are various options there.”

“I think the decision on picking a squad is always a moment in time and you're trying to balance experience where we've got 11 players who've been to three tournaments or more with younger players who are playing so well that we can't ignore what they're doing. We've always tried to do that.

“Sometimes you perhaps regenerate the group more than you were expecting a couple of months ago, but that's going to bring and has already brought a hunger, a competitiveness.”

Indeed, the squad had quite a number of changes since the World Cup in 2022 and a change of shape to move the ball quickly and generate chances from turnovers in play.

As a result of this, Ebere Eze’s style of play may have been critical to this transition and him being called up: “The other night we had a lot of experienced attacking players not on the starting grid and we still had a lot of goals in the team still.

“We were able to bring players from the bench who can score goals. In my head, in an attacking sense, that's really crucial. The rest of the team, the profile of our midfield, the way we're moving the ball more quickly forward, seeing forward passes, that excites me.

“When I'm watching training, it excites me. In terms of where we are, we're excited about what we have.”

Circling back to Wharton, Rice continued to praise his midfield counterpart, by saying: “I think there's a difference you can see between players that are top-level players at 20, and players that are just on the cusp of stuff.

“And he's top-level, he's really, really top-level. At 20 years old, he sees a pass early, left and right foot. It's impressive the way he passes the ball, whether it's only five or ten yards, there's just a crispness to it that's really impressive.

“He's really calm, composed, and relaxed. You speak to the Crystal Palace boys about him, he's shocked them on how well he's done. But look, he's 20 years old, this is his first tournament.

“It's so important we don't put too much pressure on him, let's just let him flourish. England have an amazing midfielder that's going to come through, I'm sure, for the next 10, 15 years.”

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