England manager Roy Hodgson has admitted he is looking at Saints trio of young English defenders.

Roy Hodgson has admitted he is considering options to bring Saints defenders Luke Shaw. Callum Chambers & Nathan Clyne into the England squad to face Denmark, the national team manager has been keeping tabs on all three amongst other potential wild cards into the England squad for the World Cup.

Of course Luke Shaw would be the obvious candidate for a place in the squad especially since Ashley Cole is now by far not an automatic choice for Chelsea these days and at 33 is not likely to be featuring much after this summers World Cup, the question will be though whether Hodgson is willing to gamble now and start his rebuilding or opt for the experience of Cole in the tournament for one last time.

With respect to Clyne and Chambers it would almost certainly be one or the other if he chose to check them out in the friendly, ironically Chambers emergence might cost any chance of a Saints right back going, Clyne is an experienced enough player, but if he continues to be behind Chambers in the Saints pecking order then he is unlikely to get the nod and although that in some respects would push Chambers to the fore ahead of his Saints colleague in the England pecking order, in truth Hodgson would probably see Chambers as too inexperienced to risk in a World Cup as even if he played every Premier League game between now and the end of the season he would still not have 30 league games to his name.

Hodgson commented about the trio's chances in the press.

"You will have to wait and see (whether any of the three are picked for Denmark)," Hodgson said.

"I think of the three the obvious one who has been playing last season and has been in the team non-stop since the start of this season is Shaw.

"Clyne hasn't played all the game and Chambers is an Under-18 international.

"It is May when we make decision (about the World Cup)."

It's good to see yet more Saints players in the frame for England, but I feel that for the moment Hodgson will go for experience rather than youth, but after the World cup that will almost certainly change and i would expect to see at least two of the three given a chance, assuming of course they continue their excellent club form.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:27 - Feb 13 I have feeling that none of the Saints players will be any good for England after a few training sessions with Hodgson. Pochettino has a different plan which the players have bought into. Hodgson will have them encamped back behind the halfway line and staring into the South American headlights. Lambert will end up isolated with noone to pass to and have to pass it back into his own half; Shaw and Chambers wouldn't be allowed over the halfway line; JRod would be pulled back and have to constantly run into people instead of running beyond them and Lallana will end up running around in circles wondering where everybody is. Still - they'd be better than what he has, though.

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Whatsforpud added 10:32 - Feb 13 I think Saints' fans would be fairly evenly split on which right back they would prefer to see each match. Whichever one is chosen, I don't think there are too many complaints. However neither will go to Brazil, nor Shaw, as I think Hodgson will only choose from those who have a senior England cap already. Probably too late to experiment now.
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Boris1977 added 10:33 - Feb 13 Very good analsis slynch :)
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halftimeorange added 12:35 - Feb 13 slynch - you truly are a cynic! Hodgson is defensive-minded but, after our two latest abysmal friendly displays he might just be tempted to give "the Souhampton way" a go. To play Walker at RB over either Clyne or Chambers would be ridiculous. Shaw would need a midfielder to cover his attacking mindedness so Baines is the safer bet. Rooney and Sturridge will be the starting pair up front. Gerrard will be there but he could have Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Townsend for company. That doesn't sound too defensive a line-up, does it. Hart in goal and Jagielka and Cahill at CB. Just have to leave Lampard, Carrick and Cole off the plane!

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bstokesaint added 12:40 - Feb 13 If we would get Clyne, Shaw, Cork, JWP, Lallana, Rodriguez and Lambert into the first team we could always ask the remaining minority to fit in with the way we play.. Let's face it how many teams are more exiciting to watch than Saints in the Premiership. And don't even get me started on the national team..
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slynch added 13:02 - Feb 13 Oh! Halftimeorange - how I hope I am wrong!
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truthfulsaint added 14:04 - Feb 13 I'd rather he chose Chambers for true patriotic reasons
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aceofthebase added 14:25 - Feb 13 I think that not only does Hodgson like our players he likes the way that Saints players play. If only he could leave those old stalwarts behind and I reckon he is is contemplating a massive gamble. If Saints continue on their winning ways it may not even be a gamble
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thegeneral added 17:30 - Feb 13 I think Slynch has got it bang on, with so many young english players at our club its time for England to adopt the Southampton way. We don't stand a hope in hell of winning the world cup so make the changes now and get some experience for 2018 to give ourselves a chance, i fear though that it will still be players like Carrick, Milner, Jagielka, Cole, Sturridge, Gerrard and Lampard instead of Cork, JRod, Chambers, Shaw, JWP, Sterling, Redmond, Ince etc. Woy should gwow some balls. I think Lallana will go and MP will spend the whole summer rejecting offers for him ( i hope).

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davepid added 17:57 - Feb 13 Bstokesaint is onto something here . Liverpool play our way too , so we could have three or four of them to make up the numbers plus Hart in goal. There you have it, one or two others could be trained I'm sure to fill any gaps, especially if they can score the goals we can't quite manage.
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Zambucco added 20:30 - Feb 13 We are not going to be anywhere near winning the World Cup, so be brave use the young lionhearts now, give them a taste of the big time, it will only do them good, and also England for the future. I imagine that with that many Saints players in, there would be no choice but to play the Southampton Way. I have no doubt that Shaw and Chambers would both step in and play with confidence, not too sure how much confidence Clyne would start with but he'd learn fast.

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ExiledSupporter added 11:54 - Feb 14 Can't understand why Hodgson wouldn't be looking at Cork too, better than many of his other options
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