England World Cup squad: Safe, stubborn and usually successful - take James Maddison out and this is pure Gareth Southgate

The only risks Southgate normally likes to take are with safety-first players but in recalling James Maddison – back by popular demand – he has shown he is perhaps not as pig-headed as we thought.

Maybe he cannot yet be considered a fully adopted Yorkshireman. He has only been living in Harrogate for a couple of decades, after all.

For Leeds-born Kalvin Phillips to be inked in as soon as he gave his manager an excuse with 40 minutes of League Cup football was classic Southgate. England’s is a squad that is harder to get out of than into.

Like Harry Maguire at the last European Championship, Kyle Walker did not even need that: Southgate rates the Sheffielder too highly, even if he has not played since October 2 and will not start the tournament.

Maguire is fit, but has only started six matches all season, two for his country. The last was a great advert for leaving him at home.

But Southgate is not put off by form or the boos Maguire endured at Wembley in March – not when his squad shows what he thinks of the alternative left-sided centre-backs.

Jordan Henderson is on Liverpool’s fringes, Raheem Sterling badly out of form and Harry Kane "really, really tired" says Antonio Conte, who should know as he keeps picking him for Tottenham Hotspur.

Not to worry lads, class is permanent.

Southgate's grudges are not.

Maddison has been in the doghouse since being pictured in a casino on the night he was too unwell to make his debut. He did a few weeks later but those 34 minutes are his entire England career to date.

But there was a time when it felt like Southgate was done with Walker, John Stones and Eric Dier. In June he cast doubt on Marcus Rashford's chances. In September, Trent Alexander-Arnold seemed near the back of a long right-back queue Reece James and Ben Chilwell’s injuries.

Maddison's form for Leicester City this season has simply been too good to ignore – six goals, four assists. If you watched him without knowing the history, you would not be surprised by his inclusion.

With 26 players to pick from, there is no guarantee he will make the bench in the Middle East, never mind the team. Fellow maverick Jack Grealish can tell him what being a fans' favourite counts for.

The rest of the squad, though, is pretty dull – gloriously so.

When you have a formula that has taken you to a World Cup and Nations League semi-finals, and penalty kicks from winning the European Championship, why change it? Not one to panic at a terrible Nations League summer, Southgate has kept calm, named 12 of the 2018 squad and will carry on.

For all that boringness, it is not the most balanced squad you will ever see.

Maguire is the only left-sided centre-back, Luke Shaw the only left wing-back. Kieran Trippier is the Plan B for the latter, goodness only knows for the former.

Southgate spoke on Thursday about the country's inability to produce proper "No 6s" – modern coach-speak for holding midfielders like Phillips and Declan Rice.

That position is meant to be unfashionable, though, No 9s are not.

Yet with Tammy Abrahams out of form in Serie A – a level, judging by the exclusion of AC Milan's left-sided centre-back Fikayo Tomoroi, Southgate does not think is that high – and the uncapped Ivan Toney embroiled in a gambling investigation, Callum Wilson is one of only two.

If Kane gets injured, or even just tired, England will be reliant on a sharp goalscorer whose creaking body has stopped him winning caps for three years.

Beyond that and it is make do and mend with Sterling and Rashford. No wonder Maguire's seven England goals make him the squad’s fourth-highest scorer behind those two and the amazingly prolific Kane.

England will almost certainly play three at the back, they will be stodgy in midfield, and plenty of fantasy players will be sat on the bench ages after you started screaming at the television to bring them on.

The next six weeks will be no white-knuckle ride for England fans but the hard-to-accept truth is World Cups are more often won by the boring than the bold.

Surely sending out a team more like Brazil 1982 than 1994 is one Southgate surprise we can rule out.

SQUAD: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Newcastle United), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal); Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones, Kyle Walker (both Manchester City), Luke Shaw (Man United), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hostpur), Conor Coady (Everton), Ben White (Arsenal); Declan Rice (West Ham United), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Man City), James Maddison (Leicester City), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea); Harry Kane (Tottenham), Phil Foden (Man City), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea), Marcus Rashford (Man United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Jack Grealish (Man City), Callum Wilson (Newcastle).