Newcastle United fans have been reacting to the news that Karl Darlow has been left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad for the upcoming international break.
Following the injury to current England number-one Jordan Pickford which will rule him out of the games against San Marino, Albania and Poland, there was a spot alongside Dean Henderson and Nick Pope up for grabs for a number of goalkeepers in the Premier League, but the spot eventually went to West Bromwich Albion’s Sam Johnstone rather than 30-year-old Darlow.
England boss Southgate mentioned in his press conference when naming the team that Darlow, valued at £2.7m on Transfermarkt had been dropped from the Newcastle United team ‘at the wrong time’, which probably played a big part in his decision to go with Johnstone.
But even though the numbers might suggest that Johnstone was the better choice, with him having a far better rate when it comes to saves as well as saves against expected goals than Darlow, that didn’t stop a number of supporters from becoming infuriated with Southgate’s decision:
“This is just a disrespect to Darlow at this point”
Is Darlow good enough for Newcastle?
Yes
No
The good thing is there’s still plenty of the season left, so there’s still time for him to get his place back with Newcastle and maybe give Southgate something to think about ahead of this summer’s tournament.