The England World Cup squad was unveiled on Friday morning.
The 26 players selected by Thomas Tuchel to compete at the 2026 World Cup finals.
A couple of questions for you.
What do Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley, Fulham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sunderland, West Ham and Wolves have in common?
That’s right, these nine Premier League clubs don’t have a single player in the England World Cup squad.
What do Al Ahli, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have in common?
You will no doubt have guessed by now that these five clubs in other leagues are represented in the England World Cup squad.
This is the breakdown of how the 26 players in the England World Cup squad are split between 16 clubs:
Arsenal: Four
Manchester City: Four
Newcastle United: Three
Aston Villa: Three
Tottenham: One
Chelsea: One
Everton: One
Nottingham Forest: One
Brentford: One
Crystal Palace: One
Manchester United: One
Bayer Leverkusen: One
Bayern Munich: One
Al Ahli: One
Real Madrid: One
Barcelona: One
As you can see, the top two in the Premier League are most represented in this England World Cup squad.
However, when you drill down into the detail and see how many Premier League matches the players have started this season with one round of matches to go…
With Manchester City it is James Trafford (3), John Stones (4), Nico O’Reilly (29), Marc Guehi (15).
Trafford and Stones heading to the World Cup despite only seven PL starts between them. Guehi of course played the first half of the season for Palace.
For Arsenal it is Bukayo Saka (25), Declan Rice (35), Noni Madueke (15), Eberechi Eze (21).
Saka and Rice are of course first choice for the Gunners but Eze and Madueke are in and out of the team, just as likely to be on the bench (they have made ten Premier League sub appearances each this season, as well as staying on the bench other times).
One of the interesting stats to come out of Friday was that this was the first time in 40 years, since 1986, that an England World Cup squad didn’t contain a single Liverpool player.
It would actually have been far more stunning news if there had been any.
These are all the Premier League starts made by Liverpool players who could have been called up by Thomas Tuchel: Joe Gomez (7), Freddie Woodman (2), Rio Ngumoha (4), Curtis Jones (17).
Only 30 Premier League starts between them and obviously none were under consideration.
You then have Newcastle United.
Anthony Gordon (24), Tino Livramento (14), Dan Burn (24), Lewis Hall (23), Lewis Miley (15), Nick Pope (26), Kieran Trippier (18), Jacob Murphy (18), Aaron Ramsdale (11), Jacob Ramsey (14), Joe Willock (9), Harvey Barnes (19)
A total of 214 Premier League starts between them this season and for many of them it would have been significantly more if not for injury, including/especially the trio who did make Thomas Tuchel’s squad (plus of course Anthony Gordon recently left out ahead of his anticipated move).
Eight of the 12 are full England internationals and the other four (Miley, Murphy, Ramsey, Willock) have played for England up to Under 21 level. Miley and Ramsey with realistic hopes that in the future they could potentially make the step up to the senior squad.
No wonder Thomas Tuchel is so regularly seen at Newcastle United matches, not much point watching for example Liverpool or Sunderland!
It is a significant problem though for Thomas Tuchel, or whoever else is England manager at any particular time, as to just how few English players are getting regular football for Premier League clubs.
The full England World Cup squad announced on Friday morning:
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Manchester City)
Defenders: Reece James (Chelsea), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), John Stones (Manchester City), Marc Guehi (Manchester City), Dan Burn (Newcastle United), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Djed Spence (Tottenham), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United)
Midfielders: Declan Rice (Arsenal), Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal)
Forwards: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Ivan Toney (Al Ahli), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Noni Madueke (Arsenal)