Gareth Southgate admitted the form of players like James Maddison and Mason Mount was behind the decision to drop Jesse Lingard from his latest England squad.
The Manchester United player was, along with Tottenham's Dele Alli and Manchester City star Kyle Walker, one of the high profile omissions from the Three Lions squad to take on Bulgaria and Czech Republic in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers later this month.
Southgate has named and Lingard, who hasn't scored a goal in 2019 and has been struggling in United colours, wasn't included.
"It's really about continuity from last month," said Southgate when asked about the reasoning behind his selections.
Along with the promising Maddison and Mount, he stuck with Chelsea's Ross Barkley and reintroduced Aston Villa star Fabian Delph into the midfield, alongside the likes of Harry Winks and Declan Rice.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was another player who missed out.
"We were really happy with all of the players," added Southgate. "Most of them are fit and healthy and playing well for their clubs, so we didn't see the need to change too much.
"Jesse's had a difficult period with his club and I think in those areas of the pitch we've got players who are scoring more regularly at the moment and are in very good form."
Other players to be included were Chelsea's young duo Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham, while Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford were the only United representatives in the squad, with Luke Shaw injured and Aaron Wan-Bissaka not picked as he continues to recover from illness.
England squad in full
Pickford, Heaton, Pope
Alexander-Arnold, Maguire, Mings, Rose, Trippier, Tomori, Gomez, Chilwell, Keane
Winks, Rice, Mount, Delph, Maddison, Barkley, Henderson, Sterling, Sancho
Wilson, Rashford, Kane, Abraham
