‘He sees pictures early’ – England boss Southgate impressed by Crystal Palace debutant Adam Wharton
BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Former Eagle and current England manager Gareth Southgate has praised Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton who made his senior debut for the national side on Monday night.
The 20-year-old, signed by the Eagles back in February, came on as a 62nd-minute substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina as Southgate’s side won their first of two ‘send-off’ games before this summer’s European Championships in Germany, 3-0.
In his 30 minutes on the St. James’s Park pitch in Newcastle, Wharton completed all 36 of his passes in his defensive midfield role, a pivot for the England transition from defence to attack and was involved in the build-up to England’s second goal, from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It marked a rapid rise to the top for the former Blackburn Rovers player who only made his England U21 debut in March and U20 debut last September.
“I thought Adam Wharton showed what we’ve seen at the end of the season and in training: he sees pictures early; he can play forward,” said the England manager in his post-match media conference.
“Why did we bring him in? We saw things in his performances for his club. The biggest thing for us is that ability to see a picture and play forward early. That sounds really simple, but that hasn’t been so simple for us over seven, eight years; that type of player. I think the other (England) players have recognised his quality very quickly, when you see the positions they take, the way they interact on the training pitch.
“Whenever we call a new player in they (the rest of the squad) always doubt what we’re doing. They think we haven’t got a clue what we’re doing.
“Then, they work with these youngsters and they go ‘okay right, now we see why’. We obviously watch them far more than anybody else.”
And after such a rapid rise for Wharton and impressive performances for both club and country in recent months, some observers and many fans are wondering if the youngster could make the cut for this summer’s European Championships in Germany.
After their final friendly on Friday, against Iceland at Wembley, Southgate and his coaching team will need to cut the current 33-man training squad down to 26 for Germany.
However, in the here and now, Southgate was keen to just highlight how impressive Wharton was on his debut, which the player himself later called ‘a dream come true’ on his social media channels.
“There’s no question he’s impressed us,” said Southgate, who came through the Crystal Palace academy to captain the side to the First Division title in 1994, about Wharton.
“There’s a lot still ahead of him, there’s a lot of adjustment…big steps to come and more steps to go forward but he’s adapting and adjusting to everything really well. It’s obviously very early for him but it’s lovely that he looked as comfortable as he did. He showed in the little cameo what we’ve seen in training in the last week and what we’ve seen at his club.”
And it was not just Southgate praising Wharton, with club and national teammate Ebere Eze, who also played against Bosnia and Herzegovina, singling him out.
“Adam Wharton is an incredible player and playing with him at Palace, I have got used to him – he is a joy to play with,” said the attacking midfielder to BBC Radio 5Live. “He is calm, composed and a cool guy. For someone so young he is very mature and very wise.”