Harrison over Sterling out wide and Eze instead of Henderson in midfield, while Cresswell and Ward should be in the full-back conversation... with Gareth Southgate set to name his England squad, here's who the stats say should really be going to Qatar

The odds of James Tarkowski, Ben Mee, Aaron Cresswell and James Maddison starting together in the same England team at the Qatar World Cup seems infinitesimally small.

But if Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate goes by statistics alone, all four could and perhaps should be named in the line-up for the competition.

Of course, form is temporary and class is permanent, with Southgate known to stick by players he trusts from previous tournaments regardless of form, like Jordan Pickford, Raheem Sterling and the under-fire Harry Maguire.

So with the above quartet potentially unlikely to even be named in the official 26-man squad, there is an air of the improbable about some of the suggestions mentioned - especially the likes of Crystal Palace's Joel Ward, for example.