Alan Shearer believes Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins will be ‘absolutely raging’ at Lee Carsley’s decision not to start him for England against Greece.
England were without record goalscorer and captain Harry Kane for the Nations League clash at Wembley due to injury.
But rather than replace Kane with Watkins or Dominic Solanke, interim boss Carsley chose to play a 4-2-2-2 system that didn’t feature a striker and crammed Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer all into the same line-up.
Carlsey’s experiment failed spectacularly, with a Vangelis Pavlidis double delivering Greece’s first-ever goals and win at Wembley to leave England’s hopes of promotion back to League A in doubt.
Ollie Watkins has the right to be ‘raging’ at Lee Carsley
Watkins has been in stunning form for Villa over the last 18 months, notching 31 goals and 16 assists in 62 appearances across all competitions since the start of last season.
The 28-year-old was also the hero for England in their Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands, scoring the winner with the final kick of the game.
Despite all that, Watkins wasn’t given the nod by Carsley and Shearer believes the striker has every right to be livid.
“You would be absolutely raging if you were Ollie Watkins, wouldn’t you?” Shearer told The Rest is Football Podcast. “Your main centre-forward is injured and you’ve been crying out for an opportunity. When you’ve come on, you’ve actually done alright — and he’s doing well at club level.
“Yet, when Kane is out, the manager comes to you and says, ‘Well, I’m not going to play you tonight at home against Greece, I’m going to try something different’.
“He’s got every right to be [raging], he should be knocking on his door, tonight or tomorrow, saying: ‘I have to play the next game if Kane is not fit.’”
Kane was, indeed, fit for the away trip to Finland, playing 69 minutes to help England into a 1-0 lead.
Watkins was then introduced and made his presence felt, using his hold-up play to help get the ball to Jude Bellingham, who was then fouled, resulting in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning free-kick to make it 2-0.
The Aston Villa striker then provided the assist for Declan Rice to make it 3-0, with the Three Lions eventually running out 3-1 winners in Helsinki.
Top photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
