Ray Parlour demands West Ham United star Jarrod Bowen starts for England v Australia
Ray Parlour has demanded that Gareth Southgate hands West Ham star Jarrod Bowen a start for England in their friendly with Australia on Friday night.
The Three Lions play against Australia tonight (13 October) in a friendly, with Southgate hinting that he could give some fringe players a chance to impress ahead of the clash with Italy next week.
And former Premier League and FA Cup winner Parlour told talkSPORT (13 October) he wants Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins and West Ham ace Bowen to get the nod in attack, because we already know what Kane can do.
“Absolutely, what’s the point of having friendlies if you’re not trying players out?” he said.
“We know what Harry Kane can do so give other people an opportunity in case Harry Kane is injured or can’t play. Then you know who can come in and step up.”
Must start
If Southgate isn’t willing to give players a chance in a friendly game that has zero meaning other than to get minutes into his players and system, then he never will be.
We’ve already seen that he has favourites in certain positions with Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips constantly being picked despite never playing for their club teams.
But the likes of Bowen and Watkins deserve the chance to show what they can do, especially in Bowen’s case when he has been flying in the Premier League and the first-choice option in Bukayo Saka is out injured.
If that’s the case at Euro 2024 then how will Southgate know if he can trust Bowen or not? He has to play him in these games to find out, and if Bowen can perform then he can try him in games where the stakes are higher like Italy.
It’s interesting to see how he goes with it, but the pressure will be on Bowen and anyone else who gets the chance to take it with both hands because these opportunities don’t come around very often.
In other West Ham news, report shares if Bowen will start for England v Australia at Wembley.