We still do not know if Gareth Southgate truly rates and trusts James Maddison.
The England manager took him to Qatar 2022 and, predictably, said all the right things and Maddison replied in kind. If I remember rightly, Maddison gave the first press conference at the training base in Al Wakrah and it turned out to be one of the most entertaining.
His enthusiasm was infectious. We never saw him again in Qatar. Maddison’s ingenuity would have come in handy in the quarter-final against France as England, for all their decent efforts, did not create enough good chances from open play.
