We are told that England are worried. We are told that England are specifically worried about Liverpool sidelining Dominic Solanke, who is yet to make a single appearance on Jurgen Klopp’s bench this season. The direct consequence of this entirely justifiable inactivity is that Solanke spent the majority of Thursday night’s England Under-21 game watching a goalless draw alongside another full England international – Tammy Abraham. At least his fellow substitute will play some football this season on loan at Aston Villa; Solanke could be kicking his heels until at least January. And he will probably do it awkwardly.

This is not a tale of a precociously talented young English footballer being blocked by foreign managers picking foreign players, but simply the tale of a decent young English footballer who is not quite good enough, certainly not yet. He was not starved of minutes last season – he played 583 in the Premier League alone – and yet he scored just once, rarely looking anywhere close to matching Liverpool’s lofty standards. If he is to eventually flourish, it seems unlikely that will happen at Anfield anytime soon. England should save their fretting for those who could be genuinely world class. See Foden, Phil.

In truth, Klopp should be at the bottom of England’s list of potential suspects if there is a death knell being sounded for young English footballers in the Premier League. There are three English players aged 21 and under who have played just about every minute of the new season; two are at Liverpool. The other is full-back Ben Chilwell, who is firmly established at Leicester alongside his fellow England Under-21 men James Maddison and Demarai Gray. Damn those foreign managers and their promotion of average foreign talent.

Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold – at 21 and 19 – are first-choice defenders for the team at the top of the Premier League, and could be England footballers for the next 12 years or more. And that is a credit to players, manager and club. While Marcus Rashford is playing a cameo role at Manchester United and Foden is barely part of the chorus at Manchester City, Gomez and Alexander-Arnold have their names up in lights at Liverpool. They have pushed experienced defenders Dejan Lovren and Nathaniel Clyne down into a ridiculously strong second XI. Solanke? He is merely listed among the odds and sods.

“They are here because they’re really good – not because they’re English or British,” said Klopp in April when asked about his club’s English core. “But if you have two players at the same level and one is English and the other is from somewhere else I always go for the English guy. Tottenham and us, we are pretty much the English national team and I like that.”

England should surely be the very grateful beneficiaries of that English-first sentiment – Tottenham and Liverpool provide eight of the current 22-man squad – rather than wasting time and energy worrying about a player whose nationality cannot even promote him beyond Divock Origi. The only accusation that could be levelled at Liverpool in Solanke’s stalling career is that they should have pushed him towards a loan move this summer where he could find his level.

England have a serious dearth of strikers – two of the three in their latest squad have scored just three Premier League goals in 2018 – and that hole may have to be filled by non-elite strikers at non-elite clubs like Danny Ings and Callum Wilson. But England have no such shortage of elite defenders thriving at elite clubs. Thanks to Liverpool, at least two of them have time on their side.

Sarah Winterburn

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