England set to make three changes as Lee Carsley puts his stamp on Nations League games

The Three Lions are playing host to Finland at Wembley this evening (September 10) as Carsley prepares for his first home game in charge. It comes following a 2-0 victory against the Republic of Ireland at the weekend, where goals from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish got the interim boss off to a flying start.

But Carsley - who has insisted that he is “definitely not” an England manager (despite wanting the job permanently) - is rumoured to be tearing up the team sheet for tonight’s game as he looks to experiment with his squad.

After Harry Maguire and Levi Colwill held the fort in defence at the weekend, they are set to be dropped tonight, with Manchester City duo John Stones and Rico Lewis taking their places. Meanwhile, Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo could be replaced by Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher, who left Chelsea in the summer.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of tonight’s game, Carsley said: “Going back to the squad selection, which changed a lot based on the amount of minutes that the players were playing, some were coming in and some were coming out, then they would play at the weekend so it put them in a stronger position.

“We have to be realistic that the players that didn’t have a lot of time off in the summer [at the Euros] came back having maybe not played as many minutes to expect them just to go into, especially, a game in Dublin at the tempo that we thought it would be and the physicality.

“I didn’t want to put them in a position where if they didn’t do well, you could almost see what they didn’t do well. It just gave us a chance to do a bit more work with them during the week.”