Gareth Southgate has made an incredibly bold call by reportedly dropping Wayne Rooney for England’s trip to Slovenia.
The interim boss was under huge pressure to bench the skipper, who has been under par all season for club and country.
He has now bowed to those demands after bizarrely employing Rooney in central midfield for the 2-0 win over Malta at the weekend, a game in which he failed to make any real impact.
Not only did the 30-year-old struggle to get forward, he contributed very little defensively.
Now that his place is up for grabs, it gives England the perfect chance to re-experiment with Eric Dier.
The Spurs man was one of the few players to show any passion in the summer and was partly included in the squad for Euro 2016 because of his versatility, as he can cover at right-back, centre-back, and central midfield.
For England, he’s ideal for the centre of the park, as he would give stand-in skipper Jordan Henderson the security to get forward, something which Rooney isn’t able to do.
Rooney’s tackling is also pretty suspect, and with England set to change formation for the Slovenia game, it will certainly be interesting to see whether Dier can fit Southgate in.
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