England

England are holding an open training session this morning at St. George's Park before Thursday's Uefa Nations League clash with Greece in Athens.

You can watch the session live by clicking the video at the top of this page, due to start at around 11:15 GMT.

We will also be providing text updates on what Lee Carsley's squad are up to just over 48 hours away from kick-off.

England

England's 23-man squad to face Greece and the Republic of Ireland have exactly 400 caps between them.

That total had been 627 prior to the eight drop outs, with just 13 caps being added from the five replacements combined.

The new squad has an average of 24.6 years old. If you take out captain Harry Kane and Manchester City right-back Kyle Walker, that plummets to just 23.8 years old.

Just eight members of the squad have 10 or more caps.

How many players have more than 20 caps? Four. Kane, Walker, Jordan Pickford and Jude Bellingham.

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• Trent Alexander-Arnold was forced off in the first half of Liverpool's 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.
• Declan Rice was a doubt going into Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday and was subbed off in the 71st minute.
• Bukayo Saka was also a doubt, but did start for Arsenal before limping off late on.
• Chelsea's Cole Palmer played the duration of the match, despite being a doubt ahead of kick-off.
• Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale reportedly fractured his finger during Southampton's 2-0 defeat to Wolves on Saturday.
• Jack Grealish was named in England's squad despite not featuring in any of Manchester City's last seven matches.
• Reasons for withdrawals from Chelsea defender Levi Colwill and Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden remain unknown, with both men playing 90 minutes at the weekend.

As discussed earlier this morning, there have been mass changes to England's squad in the last 24 hours ahead of upcoming matches with Greece and the Republic of Ireland.

Chelsea pair Levi Colwill and Cole Palmer, Arsenal duo Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, Manchester City midfielders Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Southampton's Aaron Ramsdale have all pulled out.

Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers, West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen, Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, Newcastle full-back Tino Livramento and Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford have all been added to interim boss Lee Carsley’s squad

Conor Coady
Former England defender on Monday Night Club

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A lot of people say how calm Arne Slot is. We should give him an enormous amount of respect and credit for what he has done because coming in after Jurgen Klopp is a really, really big thing to do. What Klopp had done over the years was incredible.

People talk about the way he has got Liverpool playing now which is with a lot more control, they have the ball for longer periods of time and there are not a lot of transitions. But, if you see Liverpool in the transition, they are still as good as they were under Jurgen Klopp: they still win the ball very, very quick.

When they lose the ball in the opponent's half, they swarm the defenders to win the ball back as quick as they can. Slot has not lost that. I think he deserves credit for keeping the core factor of Liverpool, but adding his own spin on it as well.

Thumbs up if you were watching Gary Lineker's first Match of the Day appearance on 7 August 1999? On this edition of the programme he was joined by Alan Hansen and Trevor Brooking, with the first game on Division One champions Sunderland away at Chelsea.

The score? 4-0 Chelsea. Two goals for Gus Poyet, one for Gianfranco Zola and the fourth scored by Tore Andre Flo.

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So, while Gary Lineker is stepping away from Match of the Day, he will continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast and the BBC will also host the hugely popular The Rest is Football podcast on BBC Sounds.

Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport, says: "Gary is a world-class presenter, and we’re delighted that he’ll lead our coverage of the next World Cup and continue to lead our live coverage of the FA Cup.

"We want to thank him for everything he has done for the show, which continues to attract millions of viewers each week. He’ll be hugely missed on the show but we’re so happy he is staying with the BBC to present live football."

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After 25 years presenting Match of the Day, it is now confirmed Gary Lineker will be stepping down as host of the flagship show at the end of 2024-25 season.

However, Lineker and the BBC have agreed in principle a contract extension through to the 2026 World Cup where the 63-year-old will lead the coverage of the tournament.

Lineker will also host BBC Sport’s coverage of the FA Cup in the 2025/26 season.

He says: “I’m delighted to continue my long association with BBC Sport and would like to thank all those who made this happen.”

Chris Sutton
Former Premier League striker on Monday Night Club

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It wasn't a big fanfare Arne Slot coming in and he's been pretty understated; he's not a loudmouth, he hasn't said anything daft - well, not yet, anyway. That might come after a couple of defeats.

At this moment in time, everything seems very calm and calculated. As Liverpool haven't had a bad run of games, we haven't seen him flustered at all; he's not one who gets angry in the technical area, earbashing fourth officials.

At the weekend, he did go over to the Kop - and that's the first time I've seen him go over in that sort of way. Jurgen Klopp was a chest-beater, but there seemed to be a connection [with Slot] and that respect there.

Rory Smith
Chief Soccer Correspondent for The New York Times on Monday Night Club

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Dominik Szoboszlai said a few weeks ago... obviously there is a contrast between playing for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp: you look to the sidelines and you can see that manic energy, that passion, that intensity which I think, it's fair to say for those players, probably worked as a kind of motivating factor.

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He was asked what is the difference when you look at Slot and he is quite impassive. I wonder, to an extent, if he is being deliberately impassive because he knows he doesn't want to be seen to be mimicking Klopp. That seems to a conscience choice he has made and it works for him.

And Szoboszlai said well I see someone who is in control of his plan - and that's not to say Klopp wasn't, obviously: what Slot is doing is a testament to the work Klopp did to a large extent, but I think that calmness does seem to have fused the team.

We will have plenty more on the David Coote story, England's squad changes and more throughout the day.

For now, let's turn our attentions to last night's Monday Night Club, with topics including Liverpool, Manchester City and more.

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In his Premier League career, David Coote has been the video assistant referee of 64 Premier League matches, 11 of which have involved Liverpool (as per Transfermarkt). His first was in September 2019.

Coote's third match was a 2-2 draw in a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in October 2020.

Following that, Coote was not appointed as the VAR of a Liverpool Premier League match until September 2023, the first of seven Liverpool Premier League matches as VAR last season.

In Liverpool matches outside of the Premier League, Coote has only been the VAR once.

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What are referee David Coote's stats?

In his Premier League career, David Coote has been the referee of 112 Premier League matches, three of which have involved Liverpool (as per Transfermarkt).

• His first was in July 2020 during Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Burnley, a game which is mentioned in the video in question.
• Coote then did not referee a Premier League match involving Liverpool until March 2024, when the Reds beat Brighton.
• The third and most recent of Coote's matches refereeing Liverpool came on Saturday during their 2-0 win over Aston Villa.

In all competitions, Coote has refereed Liverpool matches eight times.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter on BBC Radio 5 Live

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Referees are human beings and any human being is shaped by the experiences they have. If you have a particularly bad experience with an individual, then you're not going to forget that. But you need to feel and believe that when the officials go onto the pitch, they can keep that aside and deal in the moment, almost like a player. A player might miss a chance, but then you've to believe that the next time he gets a chance, he's going to take it. That is what the job is.

At least PGMOL and the football clubs and the players have to believe that the officials are capable of doing that and doing their job to the best of their ability. Coote refereed Liverpool against Aston Villa on Saturday, so clearly PGMOL in making that appointment and, we assume, Liverpool and Villa within the game felt that Coote was competitive enough to do that.

The problem in this instance is that this is kind of a permanent reminder. This won't go away however much you look at it. Coote would hope it would pass, but this will not go away. The video is there for everyone to see forever. How do you then assure Liverpool, their supporters and everybody else within the game that Coote is acting fairly. That is very, very difficult. We will see at the end of PGMOL's investigation what avenue they choose to go down, but it doesn't look great.

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In a story in April 2016, the BBC Sport website looked at rules regarding the appointment of match referees.

Do referees have to say who they support?

Yes. And referees will not get appointed to the clubs they support.

"At the beginning of every season the referees' background information is audited," said Keith Hackett, the former head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the organisation that makes refereeing appointments for Premier League games.

"They complete a form that includes who they support, the history of if they've played the game and with the addresses where they are residing.

"That gives you a picture that comes into use when you're appointing. It's about ensuring, for example, you wouldn't appoint a Sheffield-based ref for a Sheffield team."

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey (pictured) added: "I was never able to referee Bolton because I lived there. If you lived in Leeds, you weren't going to referee Leeds United."

This is a transcript of what David Coote appears to say in the viral video while speaking about then-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. It contains several instances of offensive language, which we have edited:

"Liverpool were [expletive]. [Expletive], absolute [expletive]. Aside from having a right pop at me when I reffed them against Burnley during lockdown, then he accused me of lying and then had a right [expletive] pop at me.

"I've got no interest in talking to someone who's just [expletive] arrogant. I do my best not to speak to him. Milner's alright.

"You can see me there with mask on, covid...social distancing. We're 10m apart. So yeah, my god. German [expletive], [expletive] me."

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Coote, who is from Nottinghamshire, is registered as a Notts County fan with PGMOL.

He therefore does not get appointed to Notts County or Nottingham Forest games.