England manager Southgate warns Liverpool duo Jones and Quansah
Liverpool can boast FOUR players in England’s initial 33-man selection for the upcoming European Championship.
Trent Alexander-Arnold leads the way in terms of experience with Joe Gomez also established in the Three Lions’ setup for the last seven years.
Two uncapped players make up the rest of the Reds contingent with midfielder Curtis Jones finally getting his international call-up and the young defender Jarell Quansah making an early and unexpected breakthrough.
England manager Gareth Southgate must reduce his 33 players to only 26 before the tournament deadline of June 6.
And the former defender has delivered a warning to Jones and Quansah ahead of England’s warmup matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland next week.
Southgate is giving NO GUARANTEES to the Liverpool homegrown pair, suggesting that they might be waiting for injury news to be confirmed for others before their chances of heading to Germany are assessed.
“I've said to these boys that we're only taking 26,” he told England’s official YouTube channel.
“They might be ready now but it might be that this is a brilliant experience for them for the future. I can't give anybody any guarantees because we don't quite know all the other injury situations.”
Jones has had very good spells
Jones, 23, excelled for England under-21s, picking up the UEFA Euro Under-21 title last summer and was in line for a call-up to the March friendlies against Brazil and Belgium before injury struck.
“We watched Curtis last summer with the Under-21s and he had very good spells during this season,” Southgate said.
“He missed spells with injury, had a very unfortunate red card and at the end of the season dropped out of Liverpool's team but we saw enough to be excited about what he can bring.”
Southgate hails Quansah's 'amazing transition'
Quansah, meanwhile, excites the England boss, who he credits for pushing his way into the Liverpool lineup even when the likes of Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez were available to be selected at centre back.
“Jarrell had a super season for Liverpool,” he said.
“You have only got to see the games which his manager picked him for, he was in the team and a couple of other high profile players weren’t in that position.
“That was a sign of how well Jurgen [Klopp] thought he was doing. He has had an amazing transition this season from a loan spell further down the leagues, and adapted to life in the Premier League well.
“He has some great attributes as a centre back so we are looking forward to seeing him.”