Roy Keane has fired a warning to Myles Lewis-Skelly over his lack of playing time for Arsenal after two England stars ‘clicked’ on Thursday.
Lewis-Skelly was not called up for November’s games against Serbia and Albania after losing his spot within the Arsenal XI to Riccardo Calafiori.
The 19-year-old is keen to determine himself as England’s first-choice left-back ahead of the World Cup within the USA, Canada and Mexico next 12 months.
Lewis-Skelly faces a battle with Nico O’Reilly for a spot in England’s starting line-up and the Manchester City star shined within the 2-0 win over Serbia, with Marcus Rashford playing ahead of him down the left.
‘It’s a powerful looking [England] team [for the World Cup],’ Keane told ITV on Sunday.
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‘There’s probably a couple of positions up for grabs. I still think [it should be] Rashford and O’Reilly, but people can construct up relationships.
‘We saw that the opposite night and that may occur over the following few months.
‘Lewis-Skelly, I still think he’s a great player [for England] if he can get back into the first-team at Arsenal. Really good options.
‘[O’Reilly] is playing for a superb team at Man City under a superb coach so he’s got into superb habits.
‘Sometimes players just click together. There’s nice chemistry between them (O’Reilly and Rashford). There’s a pleasant energy.’
Lewis-Skelly has played only 87 minutes of Premier League football and has not began a top-flight game for the Gunners to date this season.
With the teenager keen to make England’s World Cup squad, quite a lot of unnamed Premier League clubs are ‘monitoring’ Lewis-Skelly’s situation ahead of the January transfer window.
Jamie O’Hara feels Lewis-Skelly could be a guaranteed starter for 18 of the 20 Premier League clubs.
England boss Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, said this month: ‘Myles was a superb team-mate and played for us within the last camp within the World Cup qualifier in Riga, so was Ruben Loftus-Cheek, so was Morgan Gibbs-White.
‘But I said last time there’s a component to it and that’s about competition and performance and the door is all the time open for guys who perform on a high level usually.
‘Myles, Ruben and Morgan got out-performed by [Nico] O’Reilly, Alex Scott and Jude Bellingham of their positions.
‘Myles simply needs more starts, more minutes.
‘Now got here a time when O’Reilly had so many starts in that position, so he’s barely ahead for this camp.’
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