Gareth Southgate breaks silence on why Cole Palmer was called up ahead of Raheem Sterling for England’s latest squad

England boss Gareth Southgate has revealed he called up Chelsea’s Cole Palmer ahead of team-mate Raheem Sterling because he wants to see Palmer in a No.10 role.

“In terms of Cole, the key was [we] lost Maddison and Jude so we wanted somebody who could play as a 10,” explained Southgate.

“Of course, he’s playing wider at the moment for his club, but we hadn’t lost a winger as such, we’d lost two attacking midfield players.

“So we’ve got a couple of players now who can fulfil that sort of role for these games.

“Raheem was excellent at the weekend against [Manchester] City, as was Cole. But the position was the reason for [calling up] Cole really.”