Who should Roy Hodgson drop for Rashford?

So who’s that going to be?

There are talks about possibly taking 6 strikers (jolly optimistic I would have thought, but the Press have to say something I suppose), but here’s Roy’s list of strikers:

Harry Kane: 2 years of banging goals in at 20 – 30+ a season. Regular scorer for England, including top quality against Germany.

Jamie Vardy: a stellar season of 20+ EPL goals and a stunner against Germany to bring the equaliser in Berlin.

Wayne Rooney: England’s captain who appears undroppable if fit, whatever anyone might think or say.

Danny Welbeck: a rock in Roy’s qualification, scoring lots of goals and leading the line very well. Likely to be fit and fresh after coming back well from a long lay off.

Daniel Sturridge: finally playing regular games back-to-back and scoring some goals.

Andy Carroll: a totally different proposition, providing frightening ability in the air.

I haven’t put Alli or Sterling on that list, because you could easily call them attacking midfielders or wide players and I’ve omitted Walcott because I think Rashford is way ahead of him on current form.

So, if you’re Roy Hodgson: who is it you leave out for your teenager as yet untested at international level and not having trained with the core squad you’ve built up over the past 2 years?

In my book it would have to be Rooney, Welbeck or Sturridge, as Kane and Vardy are pretty untouchable and Carroll, if he goes, is a totally different option to Rashford and he probably only goes if they take 6 strikers, not five.

On current form, you have to say it would be a very hard call, as Rooney, Welbeck and Sturridge are all coming back from lay offs and all are looking OK to good and are scoring some goals.

My gut feeling is it would be Sturridge, as Welbeck can press well, is Mr Reliable running the channels and is a team player/squad member rather than a Big Mr I Am. Big Mr I Ams coming back from injury aren’t as useful as Big Mr I Am’s playing out of their skins and winning games for England regularly.

But there is an argument for saying that Rashford is already pencilled in to the 2018 cycle as a core squad member but doesn’t go in the summer.

It’s a very tough call in my book.

The only question is whether he picks 30 for the warm ups and trims down to 23 during that process or not. If he did that, he could try Rashford out and see if he gelled with the squad.

To name him in the squad without any prior run-outs would be very risky, akin to putting your future on the line if the kid doesn’t deliver in the summer. And he shouldn’t go if he merely sits on the bench all tournament.

That’s not ruling it out, it’s just saying that Roy Hodgson needs to be a very brave man and he would also risk people skiving off qualifying games and friendlies in future to keep fresh for tournaments.

My personal view is that he should be first reserve as things currently stand, but if Sturridge, Welbeck or Rooney get injured then he goes and if one of them tails off as the season reaches a finish they are dropped to make way for him.

But I’d certainly pick him for the first squad after the Euros, maybe not starting him but giving him the sort of chance that Dele Alli was given this year and grabbed with both hands.