Chelsea coach Frank Lampard spoke about Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori's call ups to the England squad for their upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Czech Republic and Bulgaria during Friday's pre-match press conference.
With only five Premier League appearances to his name, Tomori is the least experienced defender named in the latest England squad and it is thought he is behind Manchester United's Harry Maguire, Everton's Michael Keane and Liverpool's Joe Gomez in Southgate's pecking order of center backs.
Lampard says it's up to the 2017 U20 World Cup winner to prove he can form a partnership with the world's most expensive defender, Maguire in the long term.
Asked if Tomori can play alongside Maguire at Euro 2020, Lampard was quoted as saying by Football.London :''Firstly that is up to Gareth and secondly up to Fikayo to perform at a level and keep going up the gears, which he has done pretty quickly.
"Put himself in the equation and now that he is in the squad it is pretty clear that he is knocking on the door. Getting now into the team is the next challenge, then it will be about staying in the team.
"I won’t sit here and say yes, he will do that. It is up to him now but he has made that great step of getting in there.
"Gareth has shown trust, I saw his press conference yesterday and he wants to see him close up, see him train. Steve Holland knows him well. So now it is in Fikayo’s hands and show them what he shows us every day."
"Put himself in the equation and now that he is in the squad it is pretty clear that he is knocking on the door. Getting now into the team is the next challenge, then it will be about staying in the team.
"I won’t sit here and say yes, he will do that. It is up to him now but he has made that great step of getting in there.
"Gareth has shown trust, I saw his press conference yesterday and he wants to see him close up, see him train. Steve Holland knows him well. So now it is in Fikayo’s hands and show them what he shows us every day."
Tomori was a member of the England squad to the 2019 U21 EURO and started all the three games played by the Young Lions.
Igho Kingsley
Photo Credit : chelseafc.com
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