England do look a bit tired. And it’s little wonder as two of their number have clocked over 5000 minutes this season and there are many not far behind.
Here are the top 10 most-played players this season for club and country. It features seven of England’s probably first-choice XI…
10) Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid/England): 50 games, 4303 minutes
He looks a little bit broken but while it’s true that his season ended later than most – reaching the Champions League final will do that – he was actually rested several times in the La Liga run-in, while a couple of minor injuries and a suspension eased his workload. But he has played all but a few minutes at Euro 2024.
9) Bukayo Saka (Arsenal/England): 55 games, 4340 minutes
Mercifully for Saka’s poor legs, Arsenal were bobbins in the domestic cups, even though Saka missed only a handful of games through the Premier League title race. England duty has also been less taxing for Saka; he has not completed 90 minutes in an England shirt since March 2023.
MORE ON ENGLAND FROM F365:
👉 England starting XI v Slovenia ranked on chances of being dropped by Gareth Southgate
👉 The perfect night for England at Euro 2024 as Ronaldo strops and Georgia make history
👉 An Arsenal-style England XI: Saka needs Trent if Ben White is out of the picture
8) Conor Gallagher (Chelsea/England): 59 games, 4424 minutes
Mercifully for Gallagher, he will surely now get a rest. Haring around like that is bare tiring. There was no European football for Chelsea but Gallagher started 37 Premier League games and reached at least the semi-finals of both domestic cups.
7) Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa/England): 59 games, 4639 minutes
Villa having basically one striker meant that Watkins started all but one Premier League game (they lost 4-1) while he was also at the heart of a near-perfect Conference League campaign. England duty has been busier than you might reasonably think; he has started four England games in a season which has truly established him as England’s No. 2 No. 9.
5=) Kyle Walker (Manchester City/England): 55 games, 4663 minutes
That’s a whole lot of really, really fast running for a 34-year-old. Pep Guardiola did at least give him the occasional rest for Manchester City – and there was a hamstring injury that took out a chunk of March/April – but he has played every minute so far at Euro 2024.
5=) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich/England): 55 games, 4663 minutes
Actually used to playing more club football for Tottenham as the Bundesliga has four fewer games and Kane never got off the bench in a disastrous domestic cup campaign. But he did play pretty much every minute of a long Champions League campaign and he has started eight of England’s 13 matches this season. Has he fully recovered from the back injury that kept him out of Bayern’s last two games of the season? His granny impression would suggest not.
4) Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa/England):54 games, 4665 minutes
Had a gruelling club campaign in the Premier/Conference Leagues – playing almost equal amounts of football at centre-back and right-back – but hands up who spotted he played a pretty hefty part in four consecutive England appearances before coming to Euro 2024 and sitting on the bench? We don’t expect him to get off it.
3) Jordan Pickford (Everton/England): 52 games, 4680 minutes
Played a lot of football but it’s mostly standing around, gesticulating wildly and booting the ball up-field in that sideways style.
2) Phil Foden (Manchester City/England): 63 games, 5033 minutes
He’s played a whole lot of club football in his best ever season for Manchester City but at least Guardiola gave him the occasional rest against poorer opposition. Gareth Southgate, on the other hand, has used him in 12 of 13 England games, and he has started 10 of those matches. Interestingly, only four of those starts came from the left and England’s best result of the season – the 3-1 win over Italy – featured Foden on the right.
1) Declan Rice (Arsenal/England): 62 games, 5206 minutes
“Because we are sitting in a low block people automatically assume we are tired and leggy and not fit enough – if we’re not fit enough to compete for 90 minutes, we shouldn’t be footballers,” said a defiant Rice this week.
The problem for Rice is that he has now played 48 sets of 90 minutes (or more) this season as the nature of his position and the dearth of other options at club and international level means he is rarely rested and seldom substituted.
It really is a bloody good job that Arsenal were rubbish in the cups.
MORE ON ENGLAND FROM F365:
👉 England starting XI v Slovenia ranked on chances of being dropped by Gareth Southgate
👉 The perfect night for England at Euro 2024 as Ronaldo strops and Georgia make history
👉 An Arsenal-style England XI: Saka needs Trent if Ben White is out of the picture
