Natalie Sawyer: Nick Pope is the man in form and could be in goal for England vs Tunisia at the World Cup
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate claimed "the No1 Jersey is up for grabs” before naming four goalkeepers in his squad for friendlies against Holland and Italy.
Tomorrow night, England’s men play the Holland at Wembley, then on March 27 the Three Lions take on Italy again at Wembley.
Joe Hart, Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford and Pope are the guys fighting for the No1 jersey.
Many pundits have questioned why Joe Hart is in the squad but it’s quite simple.
He has big tournament experience.
Southgate obviously is concerned about going to the World Cup with inexperienced goalkeepers otherwise he would have left the out-of-form Hart out of the squad.
I can’t remember the national team having such a major dilemma between the sticks.
Yes, there has been a battle between two goalkeepers.
But most of the time everyone knew he the No1 was, including the coach.
Normally, the focus is up top where past England coaches would try different strikers in order to make up his mind on one or two places up for grabs.
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It is going to be interesting to see how Southgate navigates the situation with having four goalkeepers in one squad.
It’s been muted that each keeper will play 45 minutes.
Well if that is going to be the test for World Cup selection then Nick Pope must fancy his chances.
On current form, Pope is probably ahead of the others and if Southgate was choosing his starting XI for the first game in Russia, would he name the Burnley player on his team-sheet?
The history of World Cup selections has seen a dark horse come late and make the squad, Pope may be our dark horse for Russia.
No-one should be surprised if he starts against Tunisia in Volgograd on Monday June 18.