LONDON (Reuters) – Leicester City’s in-form forward James Maddison should start in England’s opening World Cup match against Iran, according to former manager Glenn Hoddle.
Maddison’s only senior England cap came in 2019 but the 25-year-old has been in superb form of late and was rewarded with a place in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad on Thursday.
Hoddle, who took England to the 1998 World Cup finals, believes Maddison should form part of an attacking trio along with central striker Harry Kane and Phil Foden.
“Maddison has been one of the players of the season so far with his assists, goals and the way he plays and creates,” Hoddle said. “We’ve got a lot of players of a similar ilk really, and that’s why I thought Gareth might possibly leave him out, but I’m glad to see him in the squad.
“I hope he plays at the tournament, but that will be down to Gareth’s system. I would definitely look at him to play.”
England have depended on Kane for goals under Southgate’s reign but Hoddle believes having Maddison and Manchester City’s Foden playing behind him would offer more attacking threat.
“I’ve always been a massive fan of Phil Foden, him and Maddison would be something special just behind Harry Kane,” Hoddle, a World Cup ambassador for bookmakers Betfair, said.
“I hope if (Maddison) gets that England shirt he can just relax and play, like he does for Leicester. That is the key when you are stepping up to the international level.”
Southgate sprung a slight surprise by including Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips despite him only just returning from injury, while his club mate Kyle Walker is another player selected despite injury concerns.
“That’s the only spot in the squad that I would have looked at and taken James Ward-Prowse who is fit at the moment,” Hoddle said. “I thought he would have gone instead of Phillips, purely because of Phillips’ lack of fitness.”
England are on a six-match run without a win heading to Qatar for a tournament in which they are regarded as one of the favorites and Southgate’s cautious approach has come under the microscope although he has said he will stick with his preference for three central defenders and two wingbacks.
“We’ve got to learn from the last World Cup and we’ve got to learn from the Euros on how to play defensively if we go with three at the back,” Hoddle said.
“We go back into a five too easily and we get drawn too deep. We did it against Croatia in the semi-final in 2018 and we did it in the Euro 2020 final against Italy.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
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