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One of the hottest topics in the Premier League in recent years has been the amount of minutes – or lack thereof – of football given to homegrown English players. While the national team has recently seen more success under Gareth Southgate – reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the finals of the 2018/19 UEFA Nations League – the issue of English players struggling for first team football simply won’t go away.
Put simply, the Premier League is now a global brand with clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Wolves all owned by overseas businessmen and companies – meaning the number of English players being picked by England’s top clubs is no longer that high on the agenda for them.
A handful of Premier League clubs still routinely select English players as the core of their squad, though – and the following 5 teams have given the most minutes to English players thus far in 2018/19.
#1 Burnley – 68% of minutes given to English players
Sean Dyche’s Burnley team top the list when it comes to Premier League minutes given to English players, with 68% of the minutes in their 26 league fixtures taken. In fact, their 6 most-used players – Ben Mee, Jack Cork, Charlie Taylor, James Tarkowski, Ashley Westwood and Joe Hart – all hail from England. The statistic comes as no surprise when you consider that of Burnley’s 23-man squad, only 10 of them come from other countries.
If we were looking at minutes given to British players, Burnley’s percentage would probably be even higher; Ireland’s Jeff Hendrick, Robbie Brady, Kevin Long, and Stephen Ward, as well as Scotland’s Phil Bardsley and Wales’ Sam Vokes (who is now on loan at Stoke), have also made plenty of appearances this season.
The Clarets might not be the most fashionable side in the Premier League – and to be quite frank they’re not doing brilliantly, sitting in 15th place just 3 points above the relegation zone – but they do have a member of Gareth Southgate’s England World Cup squad in goalkeeper Nick Pope, and in Tarkowski, Hart, Cork and Tom Heaton, another 4 players who have been capped recently. Former England internationals Peter Crouch and Aaron Lennon also call Turf Moor their home.
#2 Bournemouth – 51% of minutes given to English players
Along with Wolves, Bournemouth have been one of the surprise packages of the current Premier League season, as they currently sit in 11th place, just 6 points from 7th place, and they’ve achieved some memorable results, including 4-0 wins over Watford and Chelsea. Eddie Howe’s side also give plenty of minutes to English players, with 51% given to them in their 26 league fixtures thus far.
Topping the list is veteran defender Steve Cook, who, alongside Dutchman Nathan Ake, is one of just two players to have appeared in every one of Bournemouth’s fixtures thus far. Both men have also started every game rather than appearing as substitutes. Other English players who have appeared in plenty of games this season are recent international call-up Callum Wilson, and defenders Adam Smith and Simon Francis.
Interestingly, the Cherries’ percentage could rise as the season goes on – in the recent transfer window they were able to bring in defender Nathaniel Clyne and striker Dominic Solanke, both of whom have reputations as exciting prospects and who have been capped by England in recent season, and it’s expected that both could become key to Howe’s plans going forward.
#3 Leicester City – 44% of minutes given to English players
Despite giving less than half of their possible minutes to English players, Leicester City are third in this list – perhaps an indictment of how heavily Premier League clubs rely on players imported from abroad or elsewhere in the British Isles. Having said that, Claude Puel’s Foxes do at least rely on a strong English core in their first XI.
Kasper Schmeichel and Wilfred Ndidi – of Denmark and Nigeria respectively – have completed the most Premier League minutes in Leicester’s squad this season, with goalkeeper Schmeichel being an ever-present, but it’s no surprise to spot Englishmen Ben Chilwell, James Maddison, Jamie Vardy and Harry Maguire amongst the Foxes’ 10 most used players.
More impressively, in the form of Chilwell, Maddison, Vardy and Maguire – as well as Demarai Gray – Leicester have a handful of highly rated England internationals. Given youngsters Hamza Choudhury and Harvey Barnes have also been capped at youth level for England, it’s not impossible that Leicester could have 7 England internationals in their squad at some stage in the near future.
#4 Southampton – 43% of minutes given to English players
Southampton might be struggling in the Premier League this season – although results have definitely improved since the sacking of Mark Hughes and the appointment of his replacement, Ralf Hasenhuttl – but one area they do score highly in is the use of English players, with 43% of their minutes given to Englishmen. Interestingly, of the 28 players, they’ve used in Premier League action this season, 12 of them hail from England.
Topping their list of minutes this season is goalkeeper Alex McCarthy – who was recently called into Gareth Southgate’s England squad for their November matches with the USA and Croatia – while fellow England international Nathan Redmond is right behind him, having started 25 of the Saints’ 26 league games – with his 26th appearance coming from the bench.
Other high-level English talents on Southampton’s books include James Ward-Prowse and Ryan Bertrand – both capped by Southgate at full international level – and top scorer Danny Ings, who has hit 7 goals in his 18 appearances this season thus far. In fact, of their 28 Premier League goals in 2018/19, more than half have been provided by English players.
#5 Everton – 39% of minutes given to English players
Marco Silva’s Everton might be a truly cosmopolitan club – with players hailing from Brazil, Iceland, Senegal, Portugal and Colombia – but they still score relatively highly when it comes to giving minutes to English players – with 39% of their Premier League minutes given to them, many going to homegrown talent produced by the Toffees’ academy.
The player with the most minutes in 2018/19 is hardly a surprise – goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has appeared in all 27 of Everton’s league games and hasn’t missed a minute, as you’d expect from the #1 goalkeeper for Gareth Southgate’s international side. Following closely behind are defender Michael Keane (24 appearances) and forward Theo Walcott (21 starts and 5 appearances from the bench).
More interestingly though, youngsters Tom Davies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jonjoe Kenny and Ademola Lookman – the latter three coming off starring performances in England’s U-20 World Cup win in 2017 – have all made plenty of appearances this season, racking up 3100 Premier League minutes between them, and Calvert-Lewin already has 4 goals and an assist to his name. That suggests that Everton’s English contingent have a bright future – and the percentage of minutes going to English players could rise in the near future.
