Why new faces would benefit England and Gareth Southgate in quest to reach Germany 2024 - Stuart Rayner

Where clubs run from season to season, national teams go from major tournament to major tournament. The end of one usually prompts a renewal, with players retiring, many a losing coach sacked and some who have done well seeing it as a good time to walk away.

Thankfully, Southgate was not one of them.

For all that he divides opinion – has there ever been an England manager who does not? – he remains the best chance of bringing major silverware back to this country.

But there is a strong sense the next European Championship, in Germany next year, will be his last rodeo. A manager effectively working his notice rarely seems to have the same inspirational powers. So if he stayed, other things needed to change.

When he picked his squad for this week's games in Italy and at home to Ukraine on Sunday, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was 2018.

Kyle Walker, Jordan Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Eric Dier, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Harry Kane, Kieran Trippier and Marcus Rashford and Nick Pope (since withdrawn through injury) were all there, as in Russia. Only injury stopped Raheem Sterling being named too. Bar the infusion of Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham, the spine of the side is the same as for that year's World Cup semi-final.

It is unusual to see so many survivors from a squad five years ago.

Rice, Luke Shaw and Kalvin Phillips have since been added to the list of mainstays.

There are reasons for it.

Firstly, we know Southgate prizes loyalty, and trusts players who have been through the system. With a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final, a European Championship final and a Nations League semi-final, it has worked well for him so far.

Secondly, Walker and Henderson, the oldest members of that group, are only 32.

Thirdly, whilst Dele Alli, Fabian Delph, Phil Jones and Danny Rose have been on a downward spiral since, those 11 from 2018 are still going strong.

And perhaps most importantly, as Southgate has been stressing even to the sports minister this week, there are not enough young English players coming through. With too few exceptions, the golden generation of youth players that came out of St George's Park in the last decade have found their routes to Premier League first teams blocked. Hardly any of the players Premier League clubs signed in January were English.

But still there was scope for a bit of a refresh.

Last January, Leeds United declined the chance to add any new players to their squad. Twelve months on, a transfer embargo stopped Sheffield United doing so. The Februarys that followed suggested it would have helped.

Like their city neighbours, Sheffield Wednesday went into January 2023 in a strong position in the league. They did not do much themselves but the addition of Aden Flint has just given them a little perk in their push for the League One title.

Change for change's sake can be damaging – that was clearly Marcelo Bielsa's take in 2022 – but doing nothing can lead to staleness, particularly under a manager in position for seven years, in the England set-up for a decade.

Southgate has added former Leeds and Middlesbrough striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to his coaching staff, but Ivan Toney was the only uncapped player in the 25-man squad named for this month's matches, and even he had been in before.

There are still one or two who could come into the thinking – players like Morgan Gibbs-White, Eberechi Eze, Jacob Ramsey and the in-form Folarin Balogun. Rico Lewis is a right-back, a position even Trent Alexander-Arnold cannot force himself into, but performs a role for Manchester City which means he spends more time as a holding midfielder, somewhere England are short.

None would make the squad for a major tournament tomorrow but England would benefit from a few new faces, and a sense of competition for the regulars. The idea that players are “untouchable” is unhealthy, but Phillips and Maguire's presence in this squad gives that impression.

This is qualifying, something England are brilliant at. With two teams going through from the group, there is scope for experimentation. Now could be a good time to finally see if Phil Foden can be an England No 10.

This is not a call to end international careers. Walker, Henderson, Pickford, Dier, Stones, Maguire, Kane, Trippier, Rashford, Pope, Sterling, Rice, Shaw and Phillips are fine players quite capable of going to Germany next year.

But Henderson showed in Qatar how a bit of pressure on a regular can push him to new levels. Others could benefit from it too. Leaving Maguire and Phillips out this time might have given them the nudge to seek regular football in the summer.

More than anything, it would provide a sense of freshness and of evolution.

Maybe Southgate will surprise us with some tactical twist but right now this feels like an England side standing still before they have even got in front.