Alan Shearer believes Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins will be “absolutely furious” at Lee Carsley’s decision not to start for England against Greece.
England were without record goalscorer and captain Harry Kane for the Nations League clash at Wembley due to injury.
But instead of replacing Kane with Watkins or Dominic Solanke, caretaker boss Carsley opted to play a 4-2-2-2 system that featured no strikers and piled on Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer. in the same alignment.
Carlsey’s experiment failed spectacularlywith a brace from Vangelis Pavlidis scoring Greece’s first goals and a win at Wembley to put England’s A-League promotion hopes in doubt.
Ollie Watkins has every right to be ‘furious’ at Lee Carsley
Watkins has been in impressive form for Villa over the past 18 months, with 31 goals and 16 assists in 62 appearances in all competitions since the start of last season.
The 28-year-old was also England’s hero in the Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands, scoring the winner with the final kick of the game.
Despite all that, Watkins didn’t get the nod from Carsley and Shearer believes the striker has every right to be livid.
“You’d be absolutely furious if you were Ollie Watkins, wouldn’t you?” Shearer said The rest is football podcast. “Your main center forward is injured and you’ve been crying out for a chance. When you’ve arrived, you’ve really done well, and he’s doing well at club level.
“Still, when Kane is out, the manager comes to you and says, ‘Well, I’m not going to play you tonight at home against Greece, I’m going to try something different.’
“He has every right to be (angry), he should be knocking on his door, tonight or tomorrow, saying: ‘I have to play the next game if Kane is not fit’.”
Kane was indeed fit for the trip away to Finland, playing 69 minutes to help England to a 1-0 lead.
Watkins was then introduced and made his presence felt, using his holding game to help get the ball to Jude Bellingham, who was then fouled, leading to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning free kick made it 2-0.
The Aston Villa striker then assisted Declan Rice to make it 3-0 as the Three Lions ran out 3-1 winners in Helsinki.
Top photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
