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Gareth Southgate made his reputation as England’s mild-mannered assassin. He ended the international careers of Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart. He showed a willingness to move on to the next generation. But then, having forged a team, he has been transformed into a loyalist. Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips – combined total of minutes this season: 0 – were included in the squad to face Ukraine and Scotland and few should be surprised. There were reasons for each; a lack of fit centre-backs with international experience, a shortage of specialist defensive midfielders. Yet there was a notable absentee, a player with more football and in better form than Maguire and Phillips, a face of Southgate’s England. But, once again, a squad did not contain Raheem Sterling’s name. In March, fitness accounted for his absence. In June, it was the forward’s preference, Sterling asking for a break to work on his conditioning. In September, it will be managerial preference. Southgate’s explanation focused on loyalty: to the players who beat Malta 4-0 and North Macedonia 7-0 in June, to ones who have begun the season as well as Sterling. It was, though: “A difficult call and Raheem was not particularly happy about it.” A quarter of a century earlier, when Southgate made Glenn Hoddle’s World Cup squad and Paul Gascoigne did not, the midfielder responded with a tantrum. Sterling’s response was more polite, but his disappointment evident. “Raheem is always really respectful with how he responds, and deals [with things], he will always say ‘I respect your decision’ but of course he wants to get back in the group,” Southgate said. “I wouldn’t expect that to be any other way.” But the expectation was that he would be back in a squad that instead contained Eberechi Eze. Sterling has looked rejuvenated for Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea; he was arguably man of the match even in defeat to West Ham, he scored twice against Luton. “It’s not a decision I have based on the three games he has played,” Southgate said. “What I am hearing him say, he’s very focused and I am under no doubt that he’s going to have a really good season with Chelsea, I think they are going to go well. He looks like he’s back in the groove to score a lot of goals.” Which he has done for Southgate’s England: only Harry Kane has scored more in the manager’s reign. For a long time, he and Kane seemed the two certainties in the forward line, with everyone else competing to accompany them. Southgate does not call every player omitted from his squads: that he rang Sterling was a reflection of the importance he used to have. “Firstly he’s a player who has been a really big player for us, an important part of our team, and I wanted to address the fact that he’s playing really well,” he said. He painted it as a continuity choice from June, waiting for the season to unfold. “By next month we will have had another seven, 10 games and there will be a lot more evidence right across the board, of all the players and where they are at.” And yet the reality is that the wings are the area where England boast the most strength in depth. Southgate listed his rivals’ credentials: Marcus Rashford was involved in three goals against Nottingham Forest, Phil Foden was exceptional against Newcastle, Jack Grealish set up Erling Haaland’s opener at Sheffield United and Bukayo Saka has carried on where he left off last year. “We have got Foden, Grealish, Rashford, Saka, so there’s four for two positions,” Southgate reflected. “Maddison also played there. Whichever one I didn’t pick was going to be the story.” But Sterling is: a player with 55 caps in his reign, England’s outstanding attacker at Euro 2020, the talisman who realised his potential under sympathetic management, the prodigy who had looked on course to break Peter Shilton’s caps record. Then Sterling lost his place at the World Cup, albeit in a tournament when he returned to England after a burglary at his house, and amid a car-crash of a Chelsea season. He felt collateral damage in the chaos Todd Boehly brought to Stamford Bridge, a player who had arguably his worst campaign in senior football. “I understood why he wanted to focus on the fitness in June and we are seeing the benefits of that now,” Southgate said. “Of course, when you are not in, other people have the shirt.” All of which was rational and fair. But it showed a hard edge that he often conceals. Injuries could alter the equation and allow a route back in, yet Sterling will have to displace a high-class player. And for the meantime, it leaves him looking the odd man out, the player whose exclusion is not a one-off as much as a regular occurrence. If it long looked inconceivable that England could enter Euro 2024 without a fit and in-form Raheem Sterling, perhaps it is not now. 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Take three talismanic attacking midfielders out of a treble-winning team and even Manchester City might struggle. Or so the theory went, anyway. Even as they paraded the trio of trophies they secured last season, it was in the absence of a triumvirate with rare and complementary gifts, in the departed Ilkay Gundogan, the injured Kevin de Bruyne and the ill Bernardo Silva. And yet as they overcame the opening weekend’s most impressive side, the rising force, perhaps the pretenders to their crown, it was their replacements who proved decisive. Mateo Kovacic to Phil Foden to Julian Alvarez. Goal. Newcastle were defeated and, even at this early stage, it could be a six-pointer of a strike. Kovacic was the first summer signing, Foden and Alvarez the world-class talent and World Cup winner who started finals on the bench last season, the deluxe deputies waiting for an opportunity, and then seizing it. It is a fallacy to say City have the biggest squad – their bench against Newcastle included Oscar Bobb, James McAtee, Sergio Gomez and Maximo Perrone – but they have a core with quality. Even when short of players, they had just enough. Three days after overcoming Sevilla to win the European Super Cup, when Pep Guardiola made a solitary substitution in Greece’s 30-degree heat, Eddie Howe made all five changes while his City counterpart made none. If it was fatigue against freshness, City had the resilience and resolve to restrict Newcastle to one, 70th-minute shot on target. There was a winning mentality in their refusal to cede ground. Even as Newcastle applied pressure, they encountered an immovable force. Nine of the players who completed the Sevilla game got the full shift against Newcastle 72 hours later. It was a triumph of willpower and of 11 starters. The goal, admittedly, came from a man confined to the bench for 84 minutes in Athens. But Alvarez has started City’s other three matches this season. The reinvention of the Argentinian as an attacking midfielder can seem an attempt to crowbar him into the team, to give Erling Haaland’s deputy enough outings to satisfy him. As an auxiliary midfielder, he is more runner than passer, but he scored from the inside-right position, his 13th goal in as many starts at the Etihad Stadium, and what is already something of a trademark finish, a rising drive towards the top corner. With De Bruyne out for much of the rest of 2023, Alvarez has scope for a longer run in midfield. After Cole Palmer staked his case for a place with goals in both the Community Shield and the European Super Cup, there is a recurring theme of the stand-ins stepping up. With Palmer demoted to the bench – Nathan Ake was the only other player to drop out – the Mancunian to catch the eye was Foden. He got an assist for finding Alvarez; arguably he deserved one more for picking out Haaland time and again. Three times the Englishman sent the Norwegian through on goal. That used to be De Bruyne’s job, picking him out, and a combination of uncharacteristically erratic finishing and a save from Nick Pope meant the usual scorer drew a blank, their burgeoning connection bodes well; indeed Foden almost doubled the lead from a pass by Haaland. If the striker was both relentless and, with a couple of stray touches, showed hints of tiredness, Foden was the man of the match. Then there was Kovacic. His capacity to take the ball in close quarters and find teammates makes him more of a quintessential Guardiola midfielder than either Alvarez or Foden. But he is scarcely a like-for-like replacement for Gundogan, lacking the German’s goals and assists, his was the sharp, line-breaking pass to Foden that brought the breakthrough. It caught Newcastle out. The most obvious culprit for the goal was Nick Pope, who got a hand to Alvarez’s shot but perhaps should have kept it out. Yet their workaholic midfield were trapped ahead of the ball, affording the Argentinian too much space. Sandro Tonali, spectacularly good in the 5-1 demolition of Aston Villa, was taken off after failing to exert the same impact. The winger Anthony Gordon, meanwhile, was brought off before he could be sent off: booked for raking his studs down Ruben Dias’ calf, a further foul on the Portuguese led to his swift substitution. Harvey Barnes, who took his spot and followed his teammate into the book mere moments after coming on, had that shot on target, but Ederson held it and Newcastle were beaten. Which may not surprise students of footballing history. There are barren runs and then there is Newcastle’s record at the Etihad Stadium, with no point since 2005. If there were reasons to believe this offered their best chance for quite some time, they ended up with a 15th consecutive league defeat at this ground. For Guardiola, it was a 12th win in 13 meetings with Howe. And from City, it was a message to their challengers. Read More Kevin De Bruyne facing up to four months out and may require surgery Manchester City’s Super Cup victory shows that Cole Palmer is a gem to be treasured Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola sets sights on Club World Cup

England boss Sarina Wiegman has said she is “very worried” about the playing calendar after naming her squad for this month’s Women’s Nations League double-header. The Lionesses return to action, after their defeat in the World Cup final on August 20, by facing Scotland in Sunderland a week on Friday and the Netherlands in Utrecht four days later to open their campaign in the new competition. The Arsenal players in her squad – forward Alessia Russo and defender Lotte Wubben-Moy – took part in Champions League qualifying matches last Wednesday and Saturday. Wiegman, whose players started their pre-World Cup preparation camp on June 19, told a press conference on Wednesday when asked if she was concerned about the calendar and time off: “Yes, I am very worried. “I was worried before the World Cup, and we knew this was a very short turnaround. “It’s a bigger thing – we’re all talking about the calendar and we really have to get connected with FIFA, UEFA, the federations, and we have to make that better. “Of course the game is growing, which is really good. But it has to grow together and players need some rest too. “Next week they come in and some players only had six days off, which after such a high-level, high-pressure competition is not good for them. And that has been going on for a long time, because we have major tournaments in the summer all the time. So the urgency to solve it and make it better is really, really high. “The players will come in and we first have to see how they are physically, and we have to get them fresh, and do everything to do that. That’s going to be a challenge. “Of course you have the team and you want to perform at the highest level, and also you want players to be fresh. For me and my staff it’s balancing (the) two – is this player fit enough, fresh enough, to play the game? That’s balancing, it’s so intense, and players are not robots.” She added: “I’ve talked to coaches. I think everyone’s aware that we have to speak with each other and we can do a little better, and we all know it’s pretty complex. “But I think conversations are going on, and we just need to keep doing that and hopefully find better solutions than we had.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live