Why Bowen must start ahead of Saka in England’s next match as Gareth Southgate assesses options for Euro 2024
JARROD BOWEN should start ahead of Bukayo Saka for England this month.
Arsenal fans will be choking with fury or laughter at the suggestion that the West Ham forward could be preferred to their golden boy.
But there are very good reasons why Bowen deserves the chance to show what he can do against Brazil and Belgium.
And why Three Lions Gareth Southgate should consider giving Saka a bit of a breather ahead of a big few months for club and country.
Bowen’s hat-trick against Brentford made him the top-scoring Englishman in the Premier League with 14, level with Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke and just one behind overall leader Erling Haaland.
When you add the 27-year-old’s workrate, fitness and desire to that raw statistic, Bowen cannot be left out of Southgate’s squad for the last friendlies before he names his longlist for Euro 2024.
But why should Bowen start ahead of Saka? Because Southgate and the whole world know the Arsenal star’s qualities.
Because only injury will prevent him starting for England in their opening game against Serbia on June 16.
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And because the 22-year-old is more likely to get injured before the Three Lions head to Germany if he isn’t managed carefully after the amount he has played in the last three and a half years.
Saka has featured in 133 of Arsenal’s last 140 Premier League games, starting 128 of them.
No doubt Saka wants to play every minute. No doubt, either, that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta would love him to take it easy ahead of the final push for glory.
But it also makes sense.
What if Saka DOES get injured? Based on form and characteristics, left-footed Bowen is the obvious choice to play on the right of the attacking three behind Harry Kane.
“What about Phil Foden?”, Manchester City and England fans will cry.
Well, Southgate does need to work out where Foden, who is also having an outstanding season, fits into his team.
But could that be, should that be, on the left wing, rather than the right?
That’s where Foden played in the World Cup in Qatar, where he claimed he gave his best performance in an England shirt against Senegal in the last 16.
It would be useful to see whether he could again perform well in that position against top opposition like Brazil and Belgium.
Neither Marcus Rashford nor Jack Grealish is making a strong case to occupy that left-sided berth in Southgate’s first 11.
And neither of them deserves to go to Germany or play ahead of Bowen, based on the season so far.
Bowen has 16 goal involvements in the Premier League, to Rashford’s eight and Grealish’s four.
The West Ham man has created as many big chance as Rashford (six) and more than Grealish (three). Bowen works harder off the ball, too, with 30 tackles compared to the Manchester United man’s 13 and the City star’s 12.
The big question is whether Bowen is an international class player.
The honest answer is: we don’t know for sure, and nor does Southgate.
The England boss gave Bowen his international debut in a Nations League game in Hungary in June 2022.
It’s fair to say he didn’t grab the opportunity with both hands. But he was playing in an under-strength, experimental England team that individually and collectively deserved the 1-0 defeat they received.
A wretched campaign unfolded, with fans turning on Southgate to such an extent that he thought about quitting before the World Cup.
Bowen was hooked at half-time of the humiliating 4-0 home defeat by Hungary but it was hardly the best environment for a player who had never represented his country at any level before.
He was left out of the squad for Qatar and was not picked again until last October when he played the full 90 minutes in the friendly against Australia.
Bowen did not pull up any trees in that game. But again, it was a much-changed England team that featured arguably none of Southgate’s first-choice 11.
If nothing else, West Ham’s main man deserves the chance to show what he can do if he lines up in a stronger Three Lions line-up.
West Ham boss David Moyes wouldn’t like it, but you can make the argument that Bowen should start both matches. Or at least one, maybe with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer given his head in the other.
And if that means Saka sitting out one or both of them, so be it.