Minutes played by each of 26 England players at 2024 European Championships – Intriguing | OneFootball

I had a look at the England players and how much they had each played out in Germany.

It made interesting reading I thought, at least to me it did.

Four England players have played every minute so far – Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Declan Rice, Kyle Walker.

No massive surprises there.

Whilst five of them haven’t played a single minute – Dean Henderson, Aaron Ramsdale, Adam Wharton, Joe Gomez, Lewis Dunk.

Again, no huge surprises with this quintet. I think generally assumed they would only get on the pitch if circumstances forced Gareth Southgate to involve them.

What about the others though, the other 17 England players, how involved (or not) have they been?

Number of minutes played by England players at the 2024 European Championships in the five matches up to and including the quarter-final against Switzerland:

510 Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Declan Rice, Kyle Walker

491 Jude Bellingham

464 Harry Kane

456 Bukayo Saka

453 Phil Foden

408 Kieran Trippier

390 Marc Guehi

210 Kobbie Mainoo

134 Trent Alexander-Arnold

118 Conor Gallagher

115 Cole Palmer

99 Eberechi Eze

93 Ezri Konsa

42 Luke Shaw

41 Ivan Toney

35 Jarrod Bowen

20 Ollie Watkins

1 Anthony Gordon

0 Dean Henderson, Aaron Ramsdale, Adam Wharton, Joe Gomez, Lewis Dunk

Interesting to see that only eight players have featured more than the 408 minutes Kieran Trippier has managed, starting all five games and I think doing a really good job on the left. No surprise that most of England’s problems have come down the other side of the pitch in defence.

I think though that the two most bizarre ones, are the pair who have played the lowest number of minutes (that is, not including those who have played none at all).

I think that it is especially bizarre when we have had an England attack with so little pace and direct threat on goal, that Ollie Watkins and Anthony Gordon have only been given 21 minutes between them.

Watkins has only got on the pitch in the Denmark match and his pace and determination to get into threatening positions, was in direct contrast to what we have seen from the sloth-like Harry Kane.

Same with Anthony Gordon, on in the 89th minute against Slovenia, instantly running with pace at the opposition, then producing a wonderful defence-splitting ball that was in stark contrast to the non-threatening plodding football seen up to that point.

Yet Anthony Gordon was never seen again…

I find the Watkins situation really strange but as for the Gordon one, it is off the scale.

An England side creating so few chances, scoring so few goals, carrying so little threat, yet Gareth Southgate saw what the Newcastle United winger did against Slovenia despite the briefest of time on the pitch, yet the England manager’s thought was ‘No, that’s not for me!!”

As Newcastle United fans and indeed neutrals as well, I don’t think we necessarily thought he would be starting every match BUT certainly I reckon for sure, the universal expectation was that Anthony Gordon would feature regularly as an impact sub.