ADAM Lallana, Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert are NOT playing for a place in the England World Cup squad in the last two games of the season.
That’s because England manager Roy Hodgson has made it clear that players’ form over the last few matches will not affect his World Cup selection plans.
Hodgson will make his decision based over the last few months or even years and that the last few weeks of the season is a “notoriously bad” time to judge players.
The England boss is due to announce his squad in a couple of weeks' time and said: “Nothing that happens in the last four games, in terms of form, is going to affect me.
“I don't judge players on their last-minute form over two or three games. I'm judging them over two years. Or, in particular, if anyone new on the scene has emerged I'm judging him over several months.
“I'm not going to make decisions in the last week or two of the season, which is a notoriously bad time to judge talent.
“As a (club) manager I was never keen on making strong judgements on players, either to buy them or to sell them or to retain them in the last two or three weeks of the season.
“I wanted to make my decision around the November-to-early-March time because that’s where things are really done.
“You don’t become a good player over two games or a bad player over two games.”
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