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Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy have disagreed on Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White.
The number 10 was in fine form in bagging a hat-trick for Forest as the team won 4-1 to move five points clear of the relegation zone.
Gibbs-White was the man of the moment for Forest as he put the Clarets to the sword with a dominant 15 minute hat-trick – the first of his professional career.
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Naturally, talk turned to his England credentials on Match of the Day as the Forest man was overlooked for the 35-man squad utilised for last month’s friendlies.
Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy disagreed when it came to Gibbs-White.
Photo by Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty ImagesWayne Rooney doesn’t think Morgan Gibbs-White will make World Cup squad
Danny Murphy delivered a staunch defence for Gibbs-White’s inclusion in this summer’s World Cup squad, with the player now level when it comes to the leading English goalscorers in the Premier League this season.
He believes that Thomas Tuchel has no excuses not to look at Gibbs-White in the coming weeks ahead of the World Cup, conceding that the ball is now in the player’s court.
Murphy said on Match of the Day: “His goals put him in the conversation for the England squad. When you look at creative players as a manager, who is in form, who is scoring and who is making an impact. Some of the others on the list aren’t playing as well as him, perhaps, but if he keeps playing like he is now between now and the end of the season, he’s going to be in the conversation for sure.”
Rooney went one further than Murphy and actually made a prediction, saying: “Yeah, I don’t think he will make the squad. I don’t. He’s had a really good season, but I just think there are too many players ahead of him.”
Rooney might well have a point about Gibbs-White, but the players he mentions who are ahead of him aren’t playing well at all right now.
The number 10 knows that all he can do is continue scoring and assisting goals, and make it nigh on impossible for Tuchel to ignore him.
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