Is It Finally Coming Home?

GGraphik England World Cup Poster

The England World Cup 2022 squad will play their first game tomorrow at The Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan against Iran. This will mark the launch of a promising campaign, against an opposition who they are strongly expected to beat.

This will be the first time England vs Iran will be played in any official game, although the odds are already highly stacked against Iran. England are currently ranked fifth in the official FIFA rankings and are one of the favourites to win the tournament, whereas Iran is ranked 20th and are expected to be knocked out from the Group stages.

The weight of expectancy on the England squad is strong with the introduction of new promising players and their recent success in the Euros 2020 tournament. The manager Gareth Southgate, who was also manager of the 2018 World Cup squad, has since introduced 13 new players in his 26-man squad. Amongst these new players are exciting attackers, such as: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Mason Mount, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, James Maddison, Bukayo Saka and Callum Wilson. The most surprising feature has noticeably been Callum Wilson, who has scored 6 goals and made 2 assists for Newcastle since the beginning of the 2022/23 Premier League season. Harry Kane is predicted to start up front for England, however any inconsistency in form or injury during the tournament may lead to the introduction of Wilson.

The England side will be without James Maddison and Kyle Walker in their opening game due to ongoing injuries. However, the match tomorrow will still give us a good insight into how Gareth Southgate plans to set up his team for the remainder of the tournament. It's expected that Gareth Southgate will revert to his usual 3-4-3 formation, with Pickford in between the sticks. This formation should allow the starting 11 to organise themselves attackingly and achieve a good result against Iran.

Author

Samuel Gentles