Gareth Southgate insists that Dele Alli remains ‘important’ to England and questions Italy’s VAR penalty decision

The Tottenham midfielder did not feature in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Italy and played just 22 minutes in the win over Holland last week

Dele Alli was overlooked for Tuesday's friendly against the Italians (Getty)

Gareth Southgate insisted that Dele Alli is still an important part of England’s plans, despite being left out of the starting line-up for both of their friendlies this week. Alli did not feature at all in the 1-1 draw against Italy at Wembley, having played just 22 minutes against Holland on Friday. In his absence, both Jesse Lingard and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain advanced their cases with strong performances in the two games.

But despite singling out both players for particular praise after the game, Southgate said that Alli remained an “important player” for England, and that he would have appeared as a substitute had John Stones not gone off with a head injury.

“He’s very important to us,” Southgate said. “In training he’s not been able to finish all of the sessions, with the little problem he’s had. We wanted to get Adam [Lallana] in, and give Lewis [Cook] some time as well, and then losing John, I didn’t want to make any more changes. But of course Dele always wants to play, and he’ll be disappointed, of course.”

But on the whole, Southgate was encouraged by the last four performances against Italy (1-1), Holland (1-0), Brazil and Germany (both 0-0), and said that he had already decided on about “19 or 20” of his squad for this summer’s World Cup in Russia. “We’ve played four of the biggest football countries in the world, and been competitive in every game,” he said. “Our patterns of play have become far clearer, and we’ll improve on that.”

On the pivotal moment of the game, the VAR-assisted penalty decision against James Tarkowski that led to Italy’s equaliser, Southgate was sanguine. “It is what it is,” he said. “My only observation was that I don’t think it was clear and obvious. If we’re going to go with technology, there are two areas for improvement.

James Tarkowski (second right) conceded a penalty on his England debut to allow Italy to equalise (Getty)

“Only clear and obvious [decisions should be overturned], otherwise it’s just opinion again. And a better way of communicating with the fans in the crowd. When those at home have a better idea of what’s going on than those in the stadium, I don’t think that’s the right thing.”

Italy caretaker manager Luigi di Biagio said he still had no idea whether he would be appointed to the job on a permanent basis, with the likes of Antonio Conte and Roberto Mancini in the running, and two months to go until the next pair of friendlies against France and Holland.

But he insisted that an encouraging display could be the “starting point” for a much-criticised team. “This group of players need to know that they are not as bad as people say they are,” he said. “They have to understand that they can improve and do well. Whether it is with me or not, I can’t say.”