England’s best XI picked by Dream Team points – including Dan Burn, James Ward-Prowse and Everton star

We all know Dream Team is the centre of the universe, right?

And with that in mind, we’ve decided England manager Gareth Southgate might like to consider picking his best starting XI based entirely on this season’s Dream Team points.

Here’s what we’ve conjured up. Fans of the current Three Lions team might want to look away now…

GOALKEEPER: Nick Pope (£4.3m)

Newcastle’s Nick Pope isn’t just England’s top-scoring goalkeeper — he’s the highest scoring stopper among ALL Dream Team keepers!

The 31-year-old, who didn’t make Southgate’s squad, has accumulated 55 points this season, meaning he’s comfortably ahead of England rivals Jordan Pickford (27 points) and Aaron Ramsdale (21 points).

Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone (£1.7m) is our back-up option.

DEFENDERS: Kieran Trippier (£5.6m), Ben White (£4.5m), Dan Burn (£3.9m), Levi Colwill (£2.9m)

An interesting back four, granted. But we MUST stick to the data to preserve the legitimacy of our experiment. Southgate is counting on us…

Newcastle’s in-form Kieran Trippier gets priority at right-back considering he’s gathered a colossal 75 points this season.

He’s provided a whopping six assists in ten appearances and only five players in the entire game have outscored him.

The versatile Ben White slots in at centre-back having played 207 of his 286 senior appearances there.

White has 66 points this season but – much like his England career – is being overlooked by managers just a lowly 8.8% ownership.

Levi Colwill makes the cut at centre-back.

The Chelsea defender has enjoyed an impressive start to the campaign, which has seen him rise to sixth in the overall defender standings with 52 points – averaging eight in his last three games.

And finally – man, myth, legend Dan Burn joins his Newcastle colleague on the opposite flank.

The Geordie gladiator (and surprisingly good dancer) has developed an appetite for goals having scored against both Sheffield United and Paris Saint-Germain.

MIDFIELDERS: James Maddison (£4.3m), James Ward-Prowse (£4.3m), Jarrod Bowen (£4.8m), Phil Foden (£4.6m), James Garner (£2m)

Alas, we’ll NOT be going with Mike Bassett’s traditional 4-4-2 formation here. However, there are shades of Bassett’s Christmas Tree formation. Is this the ultimate hipster quintet?

Anyway, Tottenham’s James Maddison is an obvious inclusion having registered 76 points this season including a massive 18 bonus points to boot. He’s not exactly going under the radar with 41.% of gaffers picking him for their squads.

Phil Foden is another chosen by Southgate for the games against Australia and Italy, and rightly so given he’s relished the opportunity to step into Kevin De Bruyne’s boots at Manchester City.

Jarrod Bowen completes our attacking trio on the right flank. He’s the fifth highest-scoring midfielder in Dream Team right now after scoring five goals and providing an assist in nine matches.

Now this is where it gets interesting.

The most under-appreciated player in the English game James Ward-Prowse is absent from England’s squad – and nobody can quite understand why.

The 28-year-old has hit the ground running at West Ham with two goals and seven assists, while accumulating 72 points at an average of 6.8 per game.

Martin Odegaard is the only midfielder with more points in Dream Team and has double the ownership. JWP is the seventh-highest scorer in the game and has more bonus points than quite literally anyone.

Sneaking in alongside him is Everton’s James Garner, who’s quietly been going about his business on the way to 61 points. Just 1.4% of managers have selected Garner, leaving Southgate is in the clear majority by not picking him for England.

It would be remiss not to mention Jude Bellingham, who would clearly make this XI if Real Madrid fell under Dream Team’s jurisdiction. We’ve also omitted Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze, who are both injured.

STRIKER: Ollie Watkins (£4.3m)

With Harry Kane unavailable for selection, Aston Villa hitman Ollie Watkins will be spearheading our attack.

Watkins is the top-scoring English forward in Dream Team with 65 points and a fairly modest 10.2% ownership. Only attackers Julian Alvarez, Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak have outscored him but nobody has a higher average points than Watkins’ 10.7 over the last three game weeks.

Dominic Solanke is our back-up option, and would get in ahead of Marcus Rashford on points.

Here’s what our XI would look like…

In conclusion, we don’t hate it. Kind of.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk