Thomas Tuschel omitted Arsenal’s Miles Lewis Skelly for tonight’s match against Serbia. The 18-year-old fullback has been removed from the 23-man team traveling to Belgrade despite playing a 90-minute full-time in a 2-0 victory over Andorra at Villa Park on Saturday.
Lewis Skelly has played two alternatives for Arsenal this season with his victory at Manchester United and Leeds United, starting four of five games under the three-lion management of Tuchel. Reese James, who played as right back on Saturday, can switch to the left, but Chuchel will also be able to use Newcastle’s Tino Librament, Aston Villa defender Ezri Consa, or Tottenham’s DJED Spence.
England have so far won all of the World Cup qualifying matches without acknowledging goals, but has attracted criticism from fans for their performance.
After the Andorra weekend victory in June when England narrowly beat Barcelona 1-0, Touchel defended the team’s offensive display, focusing instead on the inactive crowd.
“It’s a very different crowd from the Premier League, and we know that,” he said. “I think the energy was right. The quality was there and we should have scored more. After the first goal, there was too much loss in the ball, which was 10 or 15 minutes.
“We lost a bit of focus and focus, but in the second half we found it again and created a lot of opportunities, like I said, we should score more.
“I think we missed a bit of a moment to accelerate the game. The second goal gave us a lot of freedom, and the players moved more freely and were a little more confident, so we probably needed to score the second moment.”
Speaking about the upcoming matches in Serbia, he added:
“We’ll learn a lot from next Tuesday night. We’re ready for it. We know what’s coming. It’s a difficult away game, but it’s an important game for us because we can take a big step into qualifications and we know it well.
“We’re ready because it’s the same system, completely different qualities, completely different playstyles, and a much more physical away game. We’re ready and ready to travel on Sundays and Mondays.”
