England Squad Verdict

Thomas Tuchel announced his first England squad of the season earlier today ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia.

Elliot Anderson and Djed Spence are the new new faces in the squad and there are recalls for John Stones, Tino Livramento, Adam Wharton, Jarrod Bowen and Marcus Rashford.

Anderson deserves his call up because he had a great season with Forest last season and was one of the standout performers for the U21's during the summer as they won the Euros.

I was very surprised that Spence was called up because I did not expect him to get a call up. He has started the season reasonably well with Spurs, but I still didn't see him earning a call up.

In terms of the players who have been recalled, Marcus Rashford and Tino Livramento are the two players who I'm surprised were recalled as I wasn't expecting them to earn recalls.

Adam Wharton definitely deserves his recall as he had a strong end to last season with Crystal Palace whereas John Stones and Jarrod Bowen were probably expecting to be recalled as Stones is an England regular when fit, and Bowen is arguably England's second best right winger behind Saka, who is unavailable due to injury.

As for the rest of the squad, I was very surprised to see Jordan Henderson once again selected as I didn't think he would be included because of his age. I can see why he would be selected because of the experience he has, but I still expect him to be included.

I was also surprised to see Trent Alexander-Arnold left out as I thought he would very much be in the squad. He hasn't got off to the best of starts at Real Madrid, but I was still expecting him to be in the squad.

FULL ENGLAND SQUAD:

GOALKEEPERS: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Man City)

DEFENDERS: Reece James (Chelsea), Tino Livramento (Newcastle), John Stones (Man City), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Lyles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Djed Spence (Tottenham)

MIDFIELDERS: Declan Rice (Arsenal), Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

FORWARDS: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Noni Madueke (Arsenal), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)