Perhaps you saw that devastating piece of setup play from Morgan Gibbs-White to open up Manchester City’s defence last weekend in what is turning out to be an epic season for Nottingham Forest’s unlikely Champions League candidates.
It was not just the diagonal 40-yard pass, however, that caught the eye in the build-up to Callum Hudson-Odoi’s winning goal.
It was the manner in which Gibbs-White set off almost immediately after making the pass, running at full pelt from inside his own half to get into the penalty area. The clock was showing 83 minutes and he was stretching every sinew to get into a position where he could hurt the opposition.
OK, it was just one piece of action. It is easy to pick out singular moments, right? And the answer would be that, yes, it is particularly easy in Gibbs-White’s case. Every week, there is a new highlight. Over the course of the season, there has been a whole portfolio of outstanding personal moments.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s team are enjoying the view from third position in the Premier League. They have defied all expectations and, at the heart of everything, it is difficult to exaggerate Gibbs-White’s importance to the team. If you are a Forest supporter, aged 35 or below, it is not stretching the point to say he might be the best player you have ever seen wearing the club’s colours.
All of which brings us to Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad, announced at 9am today, and Gibbs-White’s omission for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia, both to be played at Wembley later this month.
Tuchel has also decided he does not require Forest’s Elliot Anderson, which feels easier to comprehend, and there is no recall for the in-form Hudson-Odoi, who has three England caps but none since November 2019.
Neither is a huge surprise. Anderson, like Gibbs-White, will have to get past some serious competition to break into the England setup and though Hudson-Odoi has been one of the Premier League’s outstanding wingers this season, Tuchel was previously his manager at Chelsea and it is understood his impressions of the player are not entirely favourable from that time. That will surprise many Forest fans when nobody could question the player’s attitude at his current club. Equally, it is every manager’s right to form an opinion about the players he likes or dislikes, especially if they have worked together before.
With Gibbs-White, however, it feels perplexing, to say the least, that he has been removed from the squad after featuring in the previous two get-togethers this season and, week after week, being such a consistently high performer.
It is, after all, just a few weeks since Jamie Carragher, the former England international, recommended in his role as a Sky Sports pundit that Tuchel should make the player a “mainstay” of the side. Not just the squad, but the actual starting XI.
Perhaps that analysis overlooked the fact that England already have a number of penetrative midfielders who could legitimately be described as “the untouchables”. Jude Bellingham is one. Cole Palmer is another and the same applies to Phil Foden, even though his form for City this season has been erratic and, at times, poor.
Morgan Rogers’ form for Aston Villa fully justifies his inclusion and Tuchel has also decided to take up another position by giving Marcus Rashford the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the manager thinks England are well stocked already for potential No 10s and the more pressing issue is to help Rashford, on loan at Villa from Manchester United, to rediscover his motivation and put aside whatever was eating him at Old Trafford.
Even so, the news of Gibbs-White’s omission will not just surprise a lot of people at Forest, but many others who have followed his emergence as one of the Premier League’s leading players.
“So what are you saying?” might be the counter-argument. “Drop Bellingham?”
No, of course not, but this is Tuchel’s first selection and, by not finding space for Gibbs-White in a 26-man squad, it sends a message that the new manager is not particularly fussed about wanting to see him close-up to form a better opinion of the player.
Other slots are taken up by Jarrod Bowen of West Ham, Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze, a recall for 34-year-old Jordan Henderson, and the selection of Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones.
But Gibbs-White has been removed from the squad and that will be a considerable disappointment for the 25-year-old, having taken immense pride in becoming the first men’s footballer from Stafford to win a senior England cap. He was elated to win his first call-up during Lee Carsley’s time as caretaker manager and, if anything, his performances since then have gone up another notch or two.
Within the England camp, it was noted how quickly he settled into the setup at St George’s Park, having progressed through the different age levels and been part of tournament victories with the under-21s and under-17s.
When Gibbs-White made his senior debut against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin last September, he became the first Forest player since Stuart Pearce in 1997 to represent England.
Two months later, he set up Jones for one of the goals in England’s 3-0 win in Greece in November. It felt like a natural progression and though Gibbs-White’s finest work tends to come from playing as an orthodox No 10, don’t overlook the fact he has been operating in a more withdrawn role in some club matches recently. He is not tied to one position and, wherever he has played, he has continued to have a positive impact.
Not positive enough for Tuchel, plainly. The competition is fierce, yet Gibbs-White could probably be forgiven for wondering what more he has to do. Consider this: the player in question has totted up more Premier League assists than Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard since Forest’s return to England’s top division three seasons ago.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
