England’s best XI determined by Dream Team points – featuring Jarrod Bowen and Tyrick Mitchell

Listen up, Gareth Southgate!

We know every man and his dog has an opinion about the England squad and it’s probably best to shut out the noise but have you considered selecting a starting line-up based purely on this season’s Dream Team points?

Here’s what such an XI would look like…

GOALKEEPER: Sam Johnstone (£1.7m)

Crystal Palace’s custodian is with the Three Lions for real this week but whereas Southgate probably views him as third in the pecking order, the 30-year-old is our No1.

Johnstone has 15 points to his name which puts him ninth among all Dream Team keepers but first among his compatriots.

Wes Foderingham (£2.1m) would be our back-up option, for what it’s worth.

DEFENDERS: Tyrick Mitchell (£2.7m), Rico Henry (£2.8m), Marc Guehi (£2.7m)

Okay, so one centre-back and two left-backs is hardly the ideal composition for a functional defence in reality.

It’s quickly become apparent this is merely classic international break content rather than a sincere instructional dossier for Southgate to study.

Guehi (19 points) is with the squad for real but his club team-mate Mitchell (21 points) was omitted – perhaps harshly given Luke Shaw (£4.9m) is injured, meaning Ben Chilwell (£4.3m) is the only specialist left-back in the 24.

Palace started the season with a clean sheet at Bramall Lane and that’s essentially why two of their defenders have made the cut here – Mitchell also provided an assist in Gameweek 4.

Brentford fans will be proud to see Henry honoured, even in only a hypothetical sense.

The 26-year-old always puts in a shift and his attacking threat doesn’t get the coverage it warrants – he created two big chances (one converted for an assist) against Tottenham on the opening weekend.

Plus, only four defenders overall have earned more bonus points than Henry at this stage.

We should say that Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.3m) would have made the cut but we decided not to include injured players.

MIDFIELDERS: James Maddison (£4.1m), Eberechi Eze (£3.4m), Bukayo Saka (£6.3m), Jarrod Bowen (£4.8m), Solly March (£3.9m)

Now isn’t that a fun quintet?

Again, the lack of anything even close to resembling a defensive midfielder would be catastrophically flawed in reality but that’s why we call it fantasy football.

Whereas we had to scroll a fair way down the rankings to find English defenders, these five are all within the top six midfielders in Dream Team right now.

Maddison (46 points), Eze (44) and Saka (38) are the top three assets in their position and among the top five overall.

These five have combined for 11 goals and six assists already this term.

Many England fans feel Bowen and March were unlucky to miss out on Southgate’s squad and this exercise suggests such claims are justified.

For those interested, Kalvin Phillips (£2m) has one Dream Team point to his name.

FORWARDS: Dominic Solanke (£3.2m), Eddie Nketiah (£2.4m)

Two players who plundered goals for fun at youth level for England – 41 in 59 games between them for the Under 20s and Under 21s.

Bournemouth’s No9 has quietly amassed a very respectable 28 points across the first four Gameweeks by virtue of two goals and two assists.

The 0.4%-owned striker is ninth in the rankings among all forwards but he’s just four points off fourth-placed Son Heung-min (£4.5m).

Arsenal’s homegrown hero is seven points adrift of Solanke on 21.

Two goals in four outings represents a decent start to the campaign but it’s likely Gabriel Jesus (£5.2m) will be fit enough to lead the line for the Gunners after the break.

It would be remiss not to mention Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane who would both have more than enough points to make this XI if Real Madrid and Bayern Munich fell under Dream Team’s jurisdiction – but they don’t.

Here’s what our XI would look like through the visual medium of classic Football Manger graphics…

In conclusion, it’s a shambles but we had fun along the way.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk