Danny Murphy now says he would start 26-year-old Tottenham player over £100m rival

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Danny Murphy has admitted that he would start James Maddison over Jack Grealish from now on.

Murphy was speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel after a decent international break for England.

Gareth Southgate’s side dropped the first points of their Euros qualification against Ukraine before beating Scotland in a fiercely contested friendly.

The England manager had some difficult decisions to make when it came to his team selection.

Some players such as Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka pick themselves at this point.

However, there were big calls to make in midfield and on the left wing.

Although Jack Grealish withdrew from the squad through injury, Danny Murphy said he would still pick James Maddison over the £100m man.

The Man City winger has impressed for England recently, but Maddison’s form at the start of the season for Tottenham is impossible to ignore.

Unfortunately, he was played slightly out of position against Ukraine and couldn’t make the same impact as he’s been doing at club level.

Murphy chooses Maddison over Grealish for England

Murphy was asked to start one player, bench one player and drop a third player for England.

He was asked to pick between James Maddison, Jack Grealish and West Ham star Jarrod Bowen and said: “[James] Maddison starts, he’s got more end product.

“In a tournament, Maddison starts, [Jack] Grealish on the bench, no [Jarrod] Bowen.”

James Maddison has been one of the stars of the Premier League this season.

His two goals and two assists in Tottenham’s first four league games have helped Ange Postecoglou make a brilliant start to life at Spurs.

As Murphy suggests, Maddison fully deserved his start for England and it would have been interesting to see if he had been given the nod had Grealish had been in the squad.

There have been question marks over his defensive capacity which might be why Southgate wants him to play further forward.

He would have been disappointed not to have been given a chance in his preferred central role in the friendly against Scotland.

If he keeps putting in top performances for Tottenham, it will be hard for Southgate to ignore him going forward.