LEE Carsley said the decision to hand Dean Henderson his second England cap was planned – after speculation the error-prone Jordan Pickford was dropped for his performance against Greece.
Crystal Palace goalkeeper Henderson made his second international appearance almost four years after his first and was minutes away from keeping a clean sheet before Arttu Hoskonen’s 87th-minute consolation for Finland.
Jack Grealish’s goal had England ahead at the break before Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice extended the advantage in the Nations League B Group 2 game.
But it was another unconvincing performance and Fredrik Jensen missed a number of good chances to score for the hosts.
Henderson’s only previous cap was when he came on at half-time for Nick Pope in a 3-0 friend win over Ireland in November 2020 when he was a Manchester United player.
Henderson didn’t have a lot to do but wasn’t so sure on the ball and left goal-kicks to team-mates.
Interim boss Carsley – who has won three and lost one of his four games in charge and hasn’t ruled himself out of the running to replace Gareth Southgate – explained the goalkeeper decision before the game.
He said: “There was a case of getting a look at a few different players and we were always going to get a look at Dean in one of the games.”
Greece defeated Ireland 2-0 to maintain their 100 per cent start to the campaign and lead England by three points.
