GARETH SOUTHGATE is set to name a strong team tonight as England travel to North Macedonia.
Rico Lewis is expected to be handed his full England debut after being included in Southgate’s squad for the first time.
The versatile Lewis, 18, will slot in at left-back despite breaking into the City first team as a right-back.
An impressive start to the season, which has seen him make five Premier League appearances for the Cityzens, has led to Guardiola deploying him in City’s midfield for games in the Champions League and against Arsenal.
Should Lewis make his England debut, he would be England’s 20th youngest debutant at 18.
Lewis will start in the place of Kieran Trippier who had been expected to start on the left.
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Trippier started on the right last time out against Malta but has had to leave the squad due to a personal issue.
Kyle Walker will start at right-back in his place.
Elsewhere, Trent Alexander-Arnold will retain his place as a central midfielder in Southgate’s team despite plying his trade for Liverpool as an attacking right-back.
Kalvin Phillips is expected to come back into the starting XI despite struggling for game time at City and will start alongside Declan Rice.
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Southgate is expected to name a strong front three consisting of Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane and Jack Grealish.
Harry Maguire and Marc Guehi will start at centre-back again – with the pairing beginning to look like Southgate’s favoured combination at the back.
And as usual, Everton’s Jordan Pickford will start in goal.
England will be hoping for a much more convincing performance than their 2-0 win over Malta last time out.
The Three Lions were expected to sweep the minnows aside but had to work hard for both goals which came after eight and 75 minutes.
On the disappointing performance, Southgate said: “It was a game that we didn’t start well, and I’ve been in football a long time, if you don’t start well it’s hard to pick the game up.
“We got a goal out of nothing. The quality on the ball is not normally at that level, the players knew we could win the game at a canter and we didn’t extend ourselves as we normally would.
“They’ve played so many matches and done such a brilliant job, I’m not going to hammer them for that.
“We know we should be better, it was one of those days when we really didn’t get going.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
