Barnes Newcastle form should have Gordon sweating as England stars await fate

Barnes, as a winger, is vying for his place in one of the most hotly contested areas of the squad with the talent England have at their disposal the envy of most other nations in world football.

On the right-wing, Tuchel will have to pick between Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Jarrod Bowen and perhaps even Cole Palmer and Phil Foden who can play out there.

On the left-wing, Barnes is competing against Barcelona's Marcus Rashford, Arsenal's Eberechi Eze and his own Newcastle team-mate, Anthony Gordon. On the face of it, Barnes' recent form should have Gordon sweating.

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With the former Everton winger out of the Newcastle team for the last five weeks amid speculation surrounding a move to Bayern Munich, Barnes has delivered what he does best.

The former Leicester City star scored against Brighton and Nottingham Forest before setting up Nick Woltemade's opening goal in the win against West Ham United last weekend. Put simply, if the challenge was to end the season strongly, Barnes has done that and he has surely given Tuchel food for thought.

Barnes was offered the chance to represent Scotland at the World Cup, who he qualifies to play for through his maternal grandparents, but he told Chronicle Live in March that he rejected their advances to commit to realising his dream of playing for England in a major international tournament.

"Every player wants to be at the World Cup in the summer, I'm no different to any of them," Barnes told Chronicle Live after scoring against Barcelona in the Champions League.

"Moments like tonight and the games coming up, it's about doing as well as I can, making sure my form is good at club level and you never know.

"All I can do is keep chipping in with goals and assists, help the team where I can and see where it takes me. We had a chat in private [with Scotland boss Steve Clarke]. It wasn't a big sort of thing, it was a quick chat and this was the decision I came out with."

Barnes was rewarded with a call-up to Tuchel's extended England squad for the March friendlies and won his second cap for his country from the bench in their 1-1 draw with Uruguay.

Since then, he has taken his tally for the season to 16 goals and six assists in all competitions, underlining his biggest strength of being a major goal threat around the opposition box.

He may not have the technical prowess as his competitors but his propensity to score big goals in big moments has been evidenced time and again this season: see stoppage time goals against Brighton and Leeds and a late opening goal against Barcelona.

The likelihood is that the body of work Rashford, Gordon and Eze have in an England shirt will count against Barnes making the 26-man squad. Unlike Dan Burn, Lewis Hall and possibly Tino Livramento, the 28-year-old may have to prepare for bad news over the next 24 hours.

But he can hold his head high and know he could not have done much more in recent weeks to convince Tuchel otherwise and the commitment to trying to force his way into England's plans, rather than taking an easier route with Scotland he may not have fully bought into, ought to be commended.