Jason Steele is not the only 35-year-old from Brighton & Hove Albion who should be in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.
Danny Welbeck’s absence from a list of 35 players for home friendlies against Uruguay on Friday and Japan three days later is confusing.
The inclusion of Steele came as a surprise, considering he is Brighton’s second-choice goalkeeper and has not played in the Premier League since August 2024.
Welbeck’s exclusion is even more surprising. There are more reasons for Tuchel to have the striker in his plans for this summer’s World Cup than to overlook his credentials, especially as the German has named Leeds United’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Tottenham Hotspur’s Dominic Solanke as alternatives to Harry Kane.
Welbeck is in the form of his life. Two goals in Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Liverpool lifted his tally in the Premier League this season to 12. He is the top English goal scorer in the division. He is also one goal ahead of two of last summer’s big-money signings — Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres (£64million/$85m from Sporting CP) and Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike (£79m from Eintracht Frankfurt).
Danny Welbeck’s pair of goals against Liverpool today take him to 12 in the Premier League overall this season, the most he has ever scored in the competition in a single campaign.#BHAFC pic.twitter.com/aZ2VmWojEk
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) March 21, 2026
More to the point, Welbeck is comfortably outperforming Calvert-Lewin (10 goals) and Solanke (three goals). Welbeck has scored across 30 appearances at an average of 152 minutes per goal. That compares favourably with Calvert-Lewin (average 212 minutes per goal in 28 outings) and Solanke (average 230 minutes in 11 matches).
Welbeck’s goals from close range against Liverpool, a header in the 14th minute and a 56th-minute winner with his left foot, showed his variety of finishes, which are often against high-quality opposition and are vital to the result. His league total comprises five with his right foot, three with his left, two headers, plus a penalty (against West Ham United) and a free kick (against boyhood club Manchester United).
He also demonstrated his enduring athleticism by leaping over giant team-mate Lewis Dunk.
Lewis Dunk is 6ft 4, by the way 😅✈️ pic.twitter.com/LNrgHtasEm
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 21, 2026
The penalty and the free kick point to his usefulness from set pieces, too. In addition to Liverpool, he has scored twice in a game in the away win at Chelsea (3-1) and at home against Newcastle United (2-1). The ability to deliver the goods when the stakes are high is important in the context of the World Cup.
Reasons for selecting Welbeck over Calvert-Lewin and Solanke stretch beyond just goals. “Even more important for the team is how he functions as a connector,” Brighton’s head coach Fabian Hurzeler told reporters after the Liverpool win. “He is always there to connect the different ages, the different cultures we have in our team, to be there as a social leader. If you want to achieve something in a World Cup, that’s an attitude that definitely helps.”
The alternative No 9 at the World Cup is unlikely to play much if Kane stays fit, but Welbeck can be effective as an impact substitute. He showed that by coming off the bench when Brighton were 1-0 down in the 67th minute against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September to score the equaliser and then seal the points in that 3-1 victory.
Should Leeds’ Dominic Calvert-Lewin be picked ahead of Danny Welbeck? (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
Where Welbeck really comes into his own is that he has been there, done it and got the T-shirt during his career with Manchester United, Arsenal and England. He is different now from the player who represented England at Euro 2012 and the World Cups of 2014 and 2018. He was better known then for his energy and ability to perform a disciplined role in wide areas. He is more of a penalty-box predator these days, but he still puts in a shift. He is in incredible shape for his age.
Injuries have plagued his career (the same can be said of 29-year-old Calvert-Lewin and Solanke, 28). Yet Welbeck’s form and fitness have never been better. Not only did he score twice against Liverpool, but his 30th league appearance of the campaign also equalled his total both for Brighton last season and for Manchester United in 2011-12. With seven matches left, he is one short of his career-high appearances tally in a season (31 for Brighton in 2022-23).
He also has a good chance of eclipsing both his highest number of starts (20) and minutes played (1,829) in a single campaign — his respective top totals in those categories were for Brighton in 2024-25 (24 starts and 2,115 minutes).
Calvert-Lewin and Solanke have their merits, playing for teams embroiled in the fight to avoid relegation. Calvert-Lewin’s performances have been good, but he has only scored twice in 12 league games this year after a burst of seven goals in six games in November and December.
Solanke barely played until January, due to ankle trouble. Niggling injuries since then include a hip injury that ruled him out of Wednesday’s 3-2 home against Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League (the Spanish club progressed 7-5 on aggregate).
Brighton still travel to Tottenham (on April 18) and Leeds (on May 17), so it will be interesting to see how Welbeck, Calvert-Lewin and Solanke fare against each other.
“It’s not on me to judge this decision (by Tuchel),” Hurzeler said of his countryman’s choice following the Liverpool game. “I said to Danny afterwards to control the controllables, and that’s what he did on the pitch.
“We keep pushing him (Welbeck), we keep trying to support him, and hopefully one day he will get the rewards for all that he is doing on and off the pitch.”
Over to you, Herr Tuchel.