Euro 2020 Qualifiers: 3 players who were lucky to be selected by England

#3 Ross Barkley

Ross Barkley still hasn't quite lived up to his early potential

After a few years in the international wilderness, Ross Barkley returned to the England fold in October, largely thanks to the way he forced himself into Chelsea’s first team plans under new boss Maurizio Sarri. But despite 23 Premier League appearances for the Blues this season – scoring 3 goals and making 4 assists – it still feels like Barkley hasn’t quite reached the potential he once showed at Everton as a youngster.

It’d be easy to justify Barkley’s selection as a creative midfielder – particularly with Jesse Lingard out with injury – if England had no other options, but it was surprising to see his name in the senior squad on Wednesday when Leicester’s James Maddison has been selected for the Under-21 side instead.

Arguably this season’s most outstanding English creative midfielder, Maddison has Barkley trumped in almost every area if you go by statistics; he’s got more goals, more assists, averages more shots on goal, more dribbles and more key passes per game, and he gets fouled more often too.

Barkley has a better pass success rate, but that’s the only area he appears to be superior in – and at 83.2%, it’s not like Maddison is poor in that area.

Southgate has likely selected Barkley ahead of the Leicester youngster for his higher experience levels when it comes to international football – he clearly recognises Maddison’s talents and perhaps doesn’t want to rush him – but going forward it may be hard to justify the Chelsea man’s selection over and above a player like ‘Madders’.