
Roy Keane believes the performance of Morgan Rogers in England’s 5-0 win over Serbia should give Thomas Tuchel a selection headache moving forward.
With Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka all missing from October’s international break, an opportunity presented itself for other attackers in England’s squad to stake their claim.
And while an uninspiring 2-0 win over Andorra at the weekend saw few emerge with credit, England were full of positives as they romped to an emphatic victory in Belgrade on Tuesday evening.
Harry Kane got England’s rout underway before three players – Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi – each notched their first international goals prior to Marcus Rashford’s 90th-minute penalty.
And while not on the scoresheet, Rogers certainly caught the eye as well in the No10 role, producing a number of deft flicks and sharp turns which included the assist for Madueke’s goal.
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The Aston Villa midfielder was starting just his third game for the Three Lions, but Keane suspects Tuchel will find it hard to drop him after his latest display.
‘What he does is give the manager a problem and a brilliant option,’ he told ITV after the game.

‘When you get an opportunity and you perform like that, you’re sending a message to the manager that you’re going to find it hard to leave me out, and that is all these players can do.’
And Keane went further in his praise, suggesting Rogers’ movement in tight spaces evoked memories of a former, much-beloved England midfielder.
‘When he gets in a tight area and gets away, he reminds me of Gazza (Paul Gascoigne),’ he added.

‘He just has that thing where you think you’ve got him and then he gets away from you. Just little moments there, he reminds me of Gaza.’
Ian Wright was equally impressed with Rogers’ display, saying of the 23-year-old: ‘He’s got an assuredness and quality to him to play with his back to goal when the ball comes into him, or if he gets the ball and he’s running at you he’s going past you.
‘When you play in that No.10 space, you have to be able to get the ball with your back to goal, turn quickly, get it on the half turn and make things happen and that’s what he does.’
Tuchel, meanwhile, was full of praise for his entire squad but insisted that Tuesday’s level of performance had to be the benchmark going forward for his England side.
‘I’m more than happy for the team and staff,’ he told ITV. ‘We had an excellent week from start to finish. We’ve just proved what I’ve seen every day in this camp and this makes me very happy.
‘We played with a lot of intensity, a lot of work in teamwork and we showed our quality. We kept Serbia to no shots on target and you have to put in a lot of work to do that, a lot of intensity and the invisible work that you do not get praise for. It is good to watch.
‘Every game is different. We had a meeting in the beginning of the week. We’ve only had three weeks of training and that’s normally half a pre-season. It takes time and in between there are weeks of pause. The players did excellent. The credit goes to them, they did amazing – that’s the bar.’
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