A common theme across Sarina Wiegman’s tenure has been a notion that she would only pick players who were performing for their clubs. Friday’s team selection at Wembley was truly at odds with that principle, and in a chastening half an hour’s chaos against European women’s football’s most decorated nation, the England head coach’s decisions backfired in spectacular fashion. As England’s back four were repeatedly torn open with ease by the Germans, the Manchester United centre-back Maya Le Tissier, who has been in inspired form at the heart of a Manchester United defence that has conceded only one goal in five games in all competitions this season, must have been wondering what she would have to do at club level to earn herself an international game.
The same thought was surely crossing the mind of the Manchester City centre-back Alex Greenwood, who was integral to the team that deservedly beat the European champions Barcelona with a clean sheet just 17 days ago and is captaining the team that are top of the Women’s Super League table. And what about the standout young star of the WSL campaign so far, Grace Clinton, whose three goals in four WSL games from midfield have illustrated her class in front of goal, watching her teammate Ella Toone roll a gilt-edged chance just wide? The point is not that Leah Williamson , Millie Bright nor Toone deserve to be lambasted, nor that any of them deserve fans’ ridicule, nor that their places in the England side should be.
