Southgate speaks about his ‘biggest challenge’ involving Spurs and Liverpool players

Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool will take part in an all-English Champions League final on June 1st, five days before England face the Netherlands in the Nations League semi final.

With six Tottenham Hotspur players and three Liverpool players chosen in his initial 27-man squad, England boss Gareth Southgate admits that the challenge of uniting both sets of players will be a “test of our management skills”.

One set of players will be on a high after lifting European football’s most prestigious trophy, while the other players will have to try and get over the disappointment of defeat.

Southgate’s squad will be reduced to 23 players by May 27^th ahead of the fixture and should they win, they will face Switzerland of Portugal in the final in Porto on June 9^th.

Which players have been called up?

Tottenham

Harry Kane, Kieran Trippier, Eric Dier Danny Rose, Harry Winks, Dele Alli

Liverpool

Trent Alexader-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson

“We have got to make a quick but accurate assessment on where they are over those few days,” Southgate told the BBC.

“It will be a very individual thing having played in such a big game.”

“That will be the first time we have experienced that,”

“We had Jordan and Trent come into camp last year on the back of a big disappointment and that wasn’t straightforward for them.

“So somebody is going to come in in that frame of mind unfortunately. It is a unique situation. I guess the Spanish manager would have had that over a period of time in the past [two of the last five finals have been all-Spanish] and there will be others that have had to deal with it.

“That’s a test of our management skills and our collective spirit as a team. It’s the biggest challenge of all to compete against each other, then leave that at the door and remember with England we are a team, we support each other.

“That’s been a massive strength for us over the last 18 months.”