England have announced their squad numbers for the World Cup in Qatar with Gareth Southgate issuing Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane with conventional starting XI numbers
England’s squad numbers for the World Cup have been named which could provide hints – or not – to Gareth Southgate’s starting XI.
All 26 members of the squad have been handed a number that they will wear throughout the tournament as England aim to improve on their 2018 showing, where they reached the semi-finals. The squad were snapped together for the first time after convening at their St George’s Park base.
Southgate has overseen plenty of change in that period with new names now pushing for starting roles. The Three Lions boss will play down the importance of squad numbers, but eight of the eleven who started in the Euro 2020 final loss to Italy last summer were wearing numbers between 1-11. Mason Mount, Kalvin Phillips and Kieran Trippier wore 19, 14 and 12 respectively.
Harry Kane, Declan Rice, John Stones and Jordan Pickford are firmly expected to start for England in their opener against Iran next week and have all been handed conventional starting XI numbers. We take a look at numbers 1-26 to see if we can pick up any hints ahead of the tournament.