{"id":295525,"date":"2023-11-17T22:23:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=295525"},"modified":"2023-11-17T22:23:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:23:53","slug":"defoe-insists-sterling-deserves-to-be-in-englands-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-insists-sterling-deserves-to-be-in-englands-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Defoe insists Sterling &apos;DESERVES&apos; to be in England&apos;s squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jermain Defoe insists Raheem Sterling &#8216;DESERVES&#8217; to be in England&#8217;s squad after his international exile continued&#8230; as Joleon Lescott agrees and claims he is &#8216;as in form as anyone else&#8217;<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Raheem Sterling hasn&#8217;t made an England squad since the World Cup last year<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>He has fallen out of favour with Gareth Southgate despite his impressive form\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Southgate&#8217;s loyalty to his players is an issue and a weakness &#8211; It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jermain Defoe and Joleon Lescott were both left bemused by Raheem Sterling&#8217;s repeated omission from England\u00a0duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Chelsea\u00a0forward&#8217;s exile from the Three Lions continued when Gareth Southgate left him out of his group for Euro 2024 qualifying games against Malta and North Macedonia despite his impressive club form.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling has scored 20 goals in 82 caps for England, but hasn&#8217;t played for the national team since last year&#8217;s World Cup quarter-final defeat by France, when he came off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>He was injured for the opening Euro 2024 qualifiers in March but hasn&#8217;t been able to regain his England place in the four subsequent squads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And, speaking ahead of Friday&#8217;s clash with Malta at Wembley, the former England duo couldn&#8217;t quite understand why Sterling had fallen out of favour with Southgate.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/17\/20\/77944875-12763479-image-a-12_1700254194123.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jermain Defoe (second left) and Joleon Lescott (second right) were left bemused by Raheem Sterling&#8217;s continued omission from Gareth Southgate&#8217;s England squad\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/17\/20\/77944907-12763479-image-a-13_1700254197883.jpg\" height=\"451\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sterling has been in fine form for Chelsea but was snubbed for this month&#8217;s international games<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Even in previous squads him not being involved (is strange),&#8217; Defoe told Channel 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He has been one of England&#8217;s better players over last few years. On current form not only does he get in the squad, but he starts a game like this.\u00a0He deserves to be in this squad.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Lescott &#8211; who won 26 caps for his country during his career &#8211; agreed with Defoe and added: &#8216;He&#8217;s arguably as in form as anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It will be a reason that Sterling won&#8217;t understand. When you&#8217;re not selected you tend to not understand.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;(But) Southgate knows if he calls upon Sterling in a major tournament then he will step up.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/17\/20\/77944921-12763479-image-a-15_1700254292550.jpg\" height=\"436\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sterling hasn&#8217;t played for England since last year&#8217;s World Cup quarter-final defeat to France<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/17\/20\/77944935-12763479-image-a-16_1700254333985.jpg\" height=\"435\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old forward has now missed out on Southgate&#8217;s last five England squads\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old made his international debut more than 10 years ago in a friendly against Sweden in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He has shown signs of being back to his best this season after a difficult debut campaign at Stamford Bridge following his move from Man City last summer.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling has scored four goals and added two assists in 12 Premier League appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The forward will return to action after the international break when Chelsea travel to Newcastle on November 25.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12763479\/Jermaine-Defoe-Raheem-Sterling-England-Joleon-Lescott.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Jermain Defoe insists Raheem Sterling &#8216;DESERVES&#8217; to be in England&#8217;s squad after his international exile continued&#8230; as Joleon Lescott agrees and claims he is &#8216;as <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-insists-sterling-deserves-to-be-in-englands-squad\/\" title=\"Defoe insists Sterling &amp;apos;DESERVES&amp;apos; to be in England&amp;apos;s squad\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defoe insists Sterling &amp;apos;DESERVES&amp;apos; to be in England&amp;apos;s squad - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-insists-sterling-deserves-to-be-in-englands-squad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defoe insists Sterling &amp;apos;DESERVES&amp;apos; 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