David Moyes says that Jarrad Branthwaite has been up there with the best centre-halves in the League season but believes the young Blues star needs to show Thomas Tuchel he was wrong to leave hm out of his first England squad. 

Branthwaite, who was overlooked by Gareth Southgate for the European Championships last summer, was left out of Tuchel’s first selection for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia, that despite his recent form for Everton over the course of the season.

The likes of Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa and Jarell Quansah were chosen by the Three Lions’ new head coach, with the Liverpool defender the most surprising inclusion.

Branthwaite had spoken recently about how his omission from the party that traveled to Germany for Euro 2024 has spurred him on to produce his best form so this latest setback will come as a huge disappointment.

"I missed out recently with a big squad and I don't want that feeling again,” he explained to BBC Sport. "That gave me motivation to [make sure] every game I play is my best to help my club and then give myself the best possible chance to be in the England squad.

"Once it comes around, that is my main ambition – to be picked in that squad."

Moyes was asked about Branthwaite during his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of his former club West Ham this afternoon and he said that it is up to the young central defender to prove his worth by being the standout at Under-21 level.

“Well, I don’t pick the England squad so I can only I can say that if you’re looking at the last six or seven weeks, Jarrad Branthwaite would be up there playing as well as any English centre-half in the country at this moment in time, that’s for sure,” Moyes said to Sky Sports’ Vinny O’Connor.

“But the big thing that he needs to do [is] to go and play for the [England] Under-21s and be the best player again and then you get selected again for the for the big team.

“So that’s the instructions I’d be giving him: show what you can do for the 21s and I’m sure Lee Carsley will pass good information back to the manager and, hopefully, it’ll get you back in the big squad.

“[He] doesn’t need picking up because he is a young centre-half at the moment. If you think of centre-halves, a lot of them play and go on for a long time so he's in a very early stage of his career to be a full international.

“So, no, you’ve got to learn your trade. You’ve got to keep working at it, keep improving and, I told him, ‘Go play really well for the 21s and show Thomas that he should have taken you into the squad’.”

To date, Branthwaite has made just one full international appearance for England, against Bosnia-Herzegovina last June.

Reader Responses

Selected thoughts from readers
Certain off-topic comments may be removed to keep the discussion on track

1  Paul Conway
14/03/2025    23:03:49

Branthwaite is the Future of Everton and England.
A modern Day Brian Labone.

2  Edward Rogers
15/03/2025    07:38:55

Now if he was on the bench for the RS every week, he'd be a shoe-in.

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