Former England striker Wayne Rooney believes that Gareth Southgate will drop Arsenal star Bukayo Saka during Euro 2024.
Bukayo Saka is a star player for club and country.
The Arsenal winger has been a standout performer for the Three Lions in what has otherwise been an underwhelming start to Euro 2024 for the nation.
England scraped a 1-0 win over Germany in their first fixture at the tournament, with Saka providing the assist for Jude Bellingham’s winning goal.
Last time out, Gareth Southgate’s uninspired side were held to a 1-1 draw by Denmark. However, Arsenal fans still felt that Saka was able to show flashes of quality.
In any case, England need to improve dramatically if they are to stand any chance of winning the competition.
Wayne Rooney now feels that Saka could suffer as a consequence of Southgate’s need to shake things up.
Wayne Rooney expects Arsenal star Bukayo Saka to lose England place at Euro 2024
Rooney has plenty of experience of top level international football. In his playing days he accrued 120 England caps, scoring 53 goals.
The former striker now feels that Southgate needs to change his formula and tactical approach.
As quoted by The Times, the Manchester United icon has stated: “It wouldn’t surprise me if Gareth moves Foden to the right, brings in Gordon and leaves Saka out but I wouldn’t do that because I think Saka has been really good. He has been creative and provided some good balls into the box.”
Clearly, Rooney doesn’t feel that Saka deserves to lose his place, but rather that Southgate’s desperation to coax the best out of Phil Foden could lead to his exclusion.
However, considering that he has been one of England’s few bright sparks in Germany, taking Saka out of the starting XI would be utterly non-sensical.
Saka has shown that he is more adaptable than Foden, and does not deserve to be punished for that. The Manchester City man is far more deserving of being pulled out of the firing line, after his two sub-par displays at Euro 2024 so far.
However, Mikel Arteta would probably privately be pleased to see Saka become a substitute option for England. After all, the Hale End academy graduate plays practically every minute for Arsenal, and is scarcely afforded any kind of rest. If he can become less burdened in Germany this summer then that would likely be good news for the Gunners.
Arsenal winners and losers at Euro 2024
In this week’s episode, Will Jones and Rahul Lakhani discussed the first few days of the European Championships. With Arsenal players such as Kai Havertz and Kieran Tierney experiencing mixed starts to the tournament, the pair assessed which Gunners were the winners and losers from the group stages so far.
There was some talk about transfers based off the Euros, with Arsenal-linked Amadou Onana’s display for Belgium discussed, whilst Leandro Trossard’s poor performance was analysed, and Bukayo Saka’s sensational England showing lauded.