West Ham United winger Jarrod Bowen narrowly missed out on being named in England’s 26-man squad to go to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Thursday afternoon.
The Hammers winger, who has scored five goals in all competitions this season for David Moyes’ side, has had a below-par start to the campaign. Having scored just twice in the Europa Conference League before September’s international break, Bowen was named in England’s squad to face Italy and Germany, but was an unused substitute against Italy and did not even make the matchday squad for the draw with the Germans.
Upon his return, Bowen did briefly return to form with three goals in four games, including in wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham in the Premier League, but failed to score in the Hammers’ final five league games before the World Cup squad was named by Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate.
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Despite being named in England’s penultimate two squads before the World Cup, Bowen missed out, with Leicester City midfielder James Maddison, Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson and Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher all earning surprise late call-ups.
Moyes thinks that while Bowen will be gutted to have narrowly missed out on a place in Southgate’s squad and that, deep down, he knew he will have had to have been in perfect form for a place on the plane to Qatar.
“I’ll tell you what happens after the World Cup,” said Moyes. “Quite often, there’s a change around of players as well and quite often, I’m not saying everybody changes over because I think England have got quite a young squad in some areas.
“Jarrod will have a chance to show and you start right away and you start to build up so when I there will be international games in the summer time, he’ll be getting himself ready to hopefully have the chance to be selected if possible.
“Jarrod will be disappointed obviously but I think deep down, he probably knew he had to play well in a lot of the games leading up to the team selection and the likes of James Maddison, Callum Wilson, Conor Gallagher have all impressed in the last two or three months.”
Moyes also spoke about how in the build-up to the 2021/22 season, Bowen went into the campaign fresh off spending a summer running in potato fields back in Hereford.
That campaign, Bowen’s goals in all competitions led to him being one of three players in the Premier League to finish with double figures for both goals and assists and Moyes has backed Bowen to find his best again, but perhaps needs to get a bit of luck first to get his season back on track.
“I think when you look back at where Jarrod, not the summer gone but the summer before, he spent his summer back in Hereford running through the potato fields he was saying and he came back in incredible condition, he went on to have a really good season,” added Moyes.
“If anything, it was the second half of the season where he scored most of the goals which got him called up for England last season. I think he could just do with finding a bit [of luck] and sometimes you just need the ball to break a little bit different, things to go for you and get a goal that can give you a bit of confidence or a good assist can help you. I just think we’ve not quite had that.
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