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Lee Carsley explains his bold England line-up against Greece as Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham all start

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  • Carsley picks hugely ambitious attacking team
  • Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden all start
  • Jude Bellingham and Anthony Gordon also play
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  • WHAT HAPPENED?

    England play Greece on Wednesday evening in the Nations League and interim manager Carsley picked a hugely bold starting XI. In that team, he has picked Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, and Anthony Gordon, with the only holding midfielder seemingly being Declan Rice.

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    THE BIGGER PICTURE

    Carsley has explained that the thinking behind the line-up is for fluidity in the forward line, with most of England's attacking players on the pitch, barring Harry Kane, who is injured. As a result of his absence, the new boss has chosen to experiment with a false nine system.

  • WHAT CARSLEY SAID

    Carsley told ITV: "It's given us the chance to try something, to be creative with the system and with, hopefully, the way that we play. We've got to give Greece the respect they deserve, we talk about how exciting and creative we can be, it's important that we also match them physically."

    Asked if the system was the same as one he used for the U21s, he replied: "It's a little bit different. Anthony would be a different profile to Jude in the way that he played that role but what we have got with the players on the pitch is a lot of flexibility. You may see a lot of changes tonight."

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    WHAT NEXT?

    This weekend, England travel to Helsinki to play Finland in their next Nations League clash. They will aim to head off in fine form.

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